Mali and money

UdeM nursing students plan to help
West Africa any way they can afford to

PAYING THE WAY:
Christine Nadeau and fellow nursing student Jenny Waloch

by ERIK LEIJON

The West African nation of Mali is a politically stable country with developing rural and urban areas, coupled with a long stretch of inhospitable Saharan desert to the east. But it’s also one of the world’s poorest nations, with troubles in developing agriculture and adequate medical facilities. Ten second-year nursing students at Université de Montréal plan to spend two months there starting next June, helping to build infrastructure and curb the country’s staggering infant mortality rate of over 10 per cent. The group has been organizing fundraising activities in Montreal on a monthly basis and will be hosting a Grinch “R” Us party Saturday, Dec. 20 at Cafe République (1200 Peel), 10 p.m., $10, 18+.

“The country gets very little attention,” says Je VIE Mali member and second-year nursing student Christine Nadeau. “It has the framework to succeed but needs a little bit of help in order to reach its potential—especially in the smaller areas.”

Je VIE Mali organizer and nursing department professor Amélie Blanchet-Garneau was originally in Mali in 2007 for her Masters’ degree and saw the possibilities of working together with the people in the western Kayes region of Mali. Unlike the larger humanitarian efforts of UNICEF or UNESCO, the Je VIE Mali team intend to join with the local communities once they arrive there, tending to their most pressing needs at the time. This could even include non-medical help, such as improving agriculture, education and sustainable development.

“I wanted to go back because the people of Mali were so hospitable and accepted our help with enthusiasm,” says Blanchet-Garneau. “They have concrete plans in place, they want to work with us and are interested in projects that could improve their collective health.”

To send the group to Mali, they need to raise $50,000 to afford the flights and modest living conditions. Acquiring funds has been difficult, as a previous nursing faculty moratorium on funding international internships has left Je VIE Mali without support from their school and unable to provide income tax receipts to potential corporations interested in helping. The nursing school will be providing internships to Burkina Faso and Morocco, although Je VIE Mali was not integrated into the new program and is not being recognized by the school. In addition to their 60-hour work weeks, the students have been organizing car washes, bake sales and parties to amass the necessary funds.

“Without any sponsorships or endorsements, it’s been hard,” says Nadeau, who even wrote a cookbook to raise money. “But we’re not giving up, and if we have to, we’ll take out personal loans and keep paying them off until our studies are finished.” The group has raised around $7,000 thus far.

They have even looked into pairing with another humanitarian organization—and have contacted 63 different groups, including UNICEF and UNESCO—but have yet to receive a positive response from any of them. The problem lies in their steadfast plan to go where needed once they arrive in Mali instead of following a very deliberate set of plans or guidelines, even allowing the students the freedom to go elsewhere in the country if there’s an immediate need for nurses.

“We already have contacts there who are expecting us [in Kayes],” says Nadeau. “We can’t just tell them somebody offered us a deal so we’ll be going somewhere else. We want to stick to our principles and do this on our own terms.”

Adds Blanchet-Garneau, “We didn’t want to adapt our plan to someone else’s project and lose sight of our objectives.”

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