African Sky

I received a grant from African Sky to create a nutritional tree farm during my Peace Corps service in Mali. This grant allowed me to offer nutritional demonstrations to an existing community health organization in a rural village, as well as to plant trees in a nursery as a fundraiser for the local health clinic. The transfer of information as well as skills offered the benefits of education, food security, and improved health to the local participants. Now, as the Community Health Program Director with African Sky, an entirely volunteer-run organization, I am collaborating to incorporate health clinics as well as health education programs in each of the ten schools being built as a part of the “10 Schools for 2010” initiative. As the organization builds ten elementary schools to increase access to education and address one risk factor for endemic poverty, I have created a community assessment to better understand the needs of each community. The responses from this assessment will be used to craft health curriculums tailored to each of the school communities, as well as to train adult community members in preventive health behaviors that will reduce the prevalence of disease. Additionally, African Sky will be opening student health clinics associated with each school to incentivize attendance and treat health concerns before they become serious. It is by breaking the cycle of poor health that education will become possible, reducing the poverty of Mali.