Mali, Africa

I chose this region of Africa because I do not know much about it and also because I know an acquaintance who moved to Mali as a US government worker to teach people in the villages how to use agriculture to sustain food in their lives.  I was always interested in finding out more about this area.  The first article I came across talked about the potential water shortage the people of Mali could be experiencing soon.  The water shortage will cause the cattle to die, which causes a food shortage for everyone.  It said that children were being taken out of school due to the possibilities of this occurring.  This can have many negative affects on children and I would assume that those who live in poverty will be impacted more greatly by this water shortage.
  The topic I found more interesting though was a PBS story that came up about child brides.  To be a child bride you have to be married before the age of 18 and I included the chart from the story.  It is shocking!!!  I knew that this occurred, but I didn't not realize how often it occurred.  The story goes to talk about all of the affects of child brides (which are all negative) and almost everything that is on the list of topics this week was discussed:  maternal mortality due to young women having children, premature pregnancy, high infant mortality rates, an entire slew of health issues, especially higher rates of HIV, higher levels of poverty, abuse of all kinds and violence in the household, mental health issues and isolation.  Can you imagine what this does to the children in living in this environment???  These children would experience violence or watch violence at home, live in poverty and probably have some kind of health issues.  They may never receive an education and if they do, they will not go very far in school.  It was a sad article, yet very eye opening.  This is occurring all over Africa and also in Latin America and the Caribbean.  I was pretty shocked reading it and felt kind of ignorant for not realizing how often it occurs.


Resources:

http://www.oxfam.org/en/emergencies/west-africa-food-crisis/mali-water-scarcity-causing-food-insecurity

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/341/facts.html

Child Marriage Around the World
Percentage of girls marrying before the age of 18

1 Niger 76.6
2 Chad 71.5
3 Bangladesh 68.7
4 Mali 65.4
5 Guinea 64.5
6 Central African Republic 57.0
7 Nepal 56.1
8 Mozambique 55.9
9 Uganda 54.1
10 Burkina Faso 51.9
11 India 50.0
12 Ethiopia 49.1
13 Liberia 48.4
13 Yemen 48.4
15 Cameroon 47.2
16 Eritrea 47.0
17 Malawi 46.9
18 Nicaragua 43.3
18 Nigeria 43.3
20 Zambia 42.1

Source: ICRW 2007