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The Kamono Group Before leaving for Mali, neither Sahara nor I, couldn’t fully appreciate how many lives we’ve impacted and changed forever, or how many Dogon girls were counting on us to show up for them. |
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Sol Project Overview Jan. 2005 The journey to the village of Yadjangia was timely and important on multiple fronts; we reinforced the strength of the Kamono Association in the village, set up new protections against forced marriage, brought clean and safe drinking water to the school and found out the needs of the school as a whole, to better support them. In addition we paid for birth certificates, (important for admission) school registration, school supplies and tended to some individual needs of the students. And we’ve arranged for the girls to get a check up from a licensed nurse to confirm they haven’t been circumcised and to check on their general health. During our visit, we met Fatima Togo, a wonderful and dynamic woman who is the president of a women’s association near Bamako and belongs to the Yadjangia Women’s Association. She travels there, to her birthplace, twice a year in order to hold consciousness-raising meetings on issues concerning women’s and girl’s rights. She goes house-to-house, family-to-family to bring them into an understanding that is in conflict with traditional beliefs. (It helps that her brother is the current chief of the village). The Sol Project is now sponsoring her travel to Yadjangia and her efforts to deepen understanding among villagers regarding female genital mutilation, forced marriage, women’s health and reproductive issues. Through the support of the Sol Project, she will be traveling to Yadjangia 4 to 5 times a year. We brought with us an application from the Global Fund for Women specifically for the Yadjangia Women’s Association. They hope to build a women’s heath and resource center. Fatima is completing the application. I have filmed the women discussing these issues that will accompany their application. |
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The Kamono Group Fund Information The Sol Project is a 510 (c) 3 and the nonprofit group administering the Kamono Group project created by Sahara Sunday Spain in January, 2001. Contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent under the law.
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