In September/October 2008 the pilot project was carried out. It was a project consisting of three elements: First element was the selection of the location for a future health project in cooperation with APS. The choice fell upon the pleasant Tominian district in the Ségou region near the border of Burkina Faso. Secondly, IMCC Mali held a workshop on qualitative data collection methods and participatory approaches in relation to needs assessments in development work for a group of medical students and doctors in Bamako. Thirdly and finally, the workshop was followed by a field trip where the acquired skills of the workshop participants were used to carry out a needs assessment and thereby to map health related problems in the Tominian area.

The pilot project had a long- and a short-term objective. The short-term objective of the pilot project was to introduce the idea of participatory approaches and the use of qualitative fieldwork methods as a part of the planning process in development work. Further, the objective was to consolidate the partnership between APS and IMCC Mali. The more long-term objective of the pilot project was to gain knowledge on the context and the health situation of Tominian in order to facilitate and qualify the planning of future project activities in the area.
All in all, the pilot project was a great success. The cooperation with the partner organisation, APS, was equal and constructive and the Malinese people were very welcoming, and their proud and rich culture is indeed most fascinating. We feel confident that this pilot project was the beginning of a fruitful cooperation on competent, needed and most welcomed health projects in the Tominian district in many years to come.
At the moment IMCC Mali is in the process of raising funds for future project activities and we very much hope to be able to recruit people for the project already at the next wave of recruitment. A project like this will be particularly appealing to people who have an interest in being part of launching of an entirely new project with all the exciting challenges and possibilities that are entailed in such a process.
You are most welcome to contact us, if you want to know about our exciting work.