ECOS DE MALI

Boidié is a town of 4,300 inhabitants located in the Ségou region, 180 km from Bamako. Eminently agricultural, it suffers from drought problems despite being located about 15 km from Niger. Boidié's area of influence is around 22,000 people.

The population consists of the same proportion of men and women, whose main occupation is agriculture and livestock. Most houses are built in adobe and do not have electricity.

In Boidié there is a great lack of water. They have a well that supplies 20 m3 a day, which is practically insufficient to cover the population's water needs and to give the cattle water. Years ago, when the rains were abundant in the rainy season, the water that was stored in the orography of the land allowed families to grow vegetables and greens. The area was known for the quality of its watermelons. However, after several years of drought and insufficient rainfall, the inhabitants abandoned the cultivation of orchards, dedicating themselves solely to the cultivation of millet. Currently, the wells dry up from the end of February, and they do not have water again until the rainy season begins, usually at the end of June.

The diet of the people of Boidié is based on the consumption of rice and millet. Every day in the morning they eat a serving of rice with sugar. They rarely incorporate any vegetables. When there is a party, they kill a goat or hunt a guinea fowl to add to the plate. Chicken is a very expensive product. In special cases they also incorporate a tomato sauce. Only the wealthiest families can occasionally incorporate some vegetables or meat into their diet. When children stop breastfeeding, they start consuming rice.

Boidié has a school and a dispensary (health center), funded by the Association des Ressortissants de Boidie, but clearly insufficient. The school is totally insufficient in facilities and teachers for the more than 800 students it must host. The overcrowding of students, and the lack of teachers and teaching facilities make education disastrous. For its part, the dispensary does not have the necessary material or enough space. As an example, women who have given birth share a room with malaria patients.

This situation of lack of resources has caused massive emigration of young people from the town in recent years. The girls look for a way out by going to the big cities, with consequences such as a large number of unwanted pregnancies, or diseases such as AIDS. The loss of this young force has dire consequences for the development of the town.

The town, due to its poverty, presents the same problems as all those in the area, which we can summarize in problems of nutrition, education and health.