"Unless You Listen to Us, You Can't Help Us"

I stumbled upon a great video about maternal health today. It's called "Avec Nous" (With Us). If you've got 10 minutes to spare, it's worth the watch.

The film is set in the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, and the landscapes and challenges are essentially the same here in Mali as they are in Burkina. The film raises important questions about issues like free health care, gender and marital relations, inadequate health systems, and incapable health workers without making viewers feel bogged down by the desperateness of the situation.

And yet, everything from the dying woman who couldn't get to the health center to the husbands who control every aspect of their wives lives, to the husbands who beat their wives to death is realistic, unexaggerated, and happens here in Mali. These horrors are constant topics of conversation between PCV's here in Sikasso, as we wrestle to come to terms with the fact that these atrocities are occurring in our villages.

What I found most striking were the testimonials of the women at the health center that appear about halfway through the clip. I've never heard women in Mali voice such desires openly, and while I suspect they secretly long for birth control and access to schooling for their kids, I'm afraid they don't voice these concerns because they don't think they could ever become a reality.

A recent slogan for International Women's Day here in Mali was something like, "Letting women's voices be heard, and increasing their role in decision making in Africa". My translation is rough, but you get the point. Empowering women in this country is on people's radar, but it's going to take a while for the full effect of the efforts to trickle down to the village level.