MyAgro was recently mentioned in a blog post by one of our supporters and fans. Many thanks Jake! To read more, check out Jake’s blog at An Asher Abroad.
An excerpt from “How to Sell Education”, published SEPTEMBER 7, 2012, by Jake Asher:
“In the meantime, I’m going to take some time now to tell you about some interesting things going on in one of my other homes-away-from-home, Mali. The news there is remaining steadily ominous. We’ve got a fog (’cause it’s the rainy season there now, get it?) of political uncertainty in the south involving interim governments and conditionally-rejected offers of international military support, profoundly disturbing reports of Islamist extremists sending the northern part of the country on a fast-track to becoming “the next Afghanistan,” as the media is often fond of putting it, and no end in sight to a long-standing drought and regional food crisis. While I’ve been reading the headlines often enough, and I’m probably equally informed about current events in Mali as I am about those in American, which is actually saying fairly little, I’ve definitely lost my inside grasp on what’s been going on there since the Coup.
So I’m not interested now in rehashing what a 5-minute Google News search could tell you. No, I’d rather let you know about some of the positive influences that are continuing over in Mali, despite these times of uncertainty which try even the noblest hearts. There are dozens of great organizations, and I’m sure most of them deserve at least your awareness, if not your support, but today, I’m picking just one particularly cool project for this post because, well I have friends who work there.
The organization is called myAgro, and while it’s only just a baby, at 8 months old, they’ve been making some really great headway, and influencing a lot of small-scale Malian farmers. They do this through giving loans and establishing savings programs with local farmer who sign up for the program. According to one of their recent performance reports, they have already signed up hundreds of farmers for their program, earned thousands of dollars in savings for farmers in their program (in a country where, for millions of people, earning just one dollar in a day can make the difference between eating today or not), and continue to run a weekly program to publicize the programs and educate and interview farmers and program members around the country. As those of you who know me might imagine, this some-time farmer, radio DJ, and cheapskate finds a lot to like about myAgro! And of course, the founder, Anushka Ratnayake, is an awesome person who I met a few times during my last stint in Mali. And to quote my good friend and fellow Mali RPCV, Audra, who currently volunteers for myAgro while living in Chicago, “What is really interesting with myAgro is that in the midst of all of the Malian politically instability, their programs are offering solutions for farmers to create sustainable food security for themselves.” See, we’re not talking about a charity here, we’re talking about a capacity-building venture, a program that doesn’t give away fish, but creates fishermen.
If you want to learn more about myAgro, peruse their website at www.localhost:8888, or alternatively, you could just take my word for it and head straight to their Donate Now page. Trust me, a few bucks on your end can go a long way towards some relief in a country that needs it, and setting good examples for sustainable agricultural methods which, if spread widely enough, will encourage positive and lasting change where it’s needed. That’s right, for the price of one trenta-sized double-macchiato triple-mochaccino latte caffeine jug, you could help improve farming capabilities in the most fantastic country most of you have never been to!”
