From Hot Spots to Holy Places: Group sales of health products contribute to women’s empowerment and better health in Mali

Togo Kadiatou Malle, president of Muso Yiriwa Ton in Mali, is now an ardent proponent of condoms and contraceptives.

This was originally published on the Knowledge4Health Blog on July 1, 2019.

The first five times the sales manager of Keneya Jemu Kan came looking for Madame Togo Kadiatou Mallé to talk about her women’s association selling condoms and other health products, she ran away and hid, so terrified was she of the prospect of having to work with condoms. 

But the sales manager’s persistence paid off. Eventually, they talked, and Madame Togo has become such an enthusiastic condom promoter, she is known as Mama Condom. She laughs about her fear of condoms. 

Madame Togo is president of Muso Yiriwa Ton (MYT), which means “women-empowering group” in the Bambara language, a women’s association based in the very poor Sabalibougou neighbourhood of Bamako, Mali. Her association – as well as other women’s associations – are a major reason for the success of Keneya Jemu Kan (“Communication Around Health”), or KJK, a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs that seeks to reduce maternal, infant, and child mortality in Mali. Palladium leads the social marketing component of KJK.

MYT has more than 400 members, and roughly half of them sell the KJK’s male and female condoms, as well as Aquatabs (water purification tablets), Orasel Zinc (zinc tablets and oral rehydration solution to treat diarrhoea), and CycleBeads (a natural family planning method). MYT members sell an average of 107 cartons of Protector Plus condoms per month. That’s 64,200 condoms. The partnership helps to enhance economic prospects of its members. 

“It has become a source of life for many families,” said Madame Togo. “And it is improving health of the areas where they sell, in Commune 5 and beyond.”

Facing two water crises: Having enough water and ensuring it's safe to drink

A market vendor in Bamako, Mali buys Aquatabs water purification tablets for her shop from a Palladium sales promoter. The tablets are one of several solutions for ensuring safe water at point of use. Photo: David J. Olson

This was originally published on Global Health TV on March 29, 2018.

We talk about a world water crisis like there’s only one but there are really two. The first crisis we see playing out in Cape Town – the growing number of places that do not have enough water of any kind. The second crisis is ensuring that the water people do have is safe to drink.

The city of Cape Town has just dodged a bullet – at least for 2018. Day Zero -- the day when dams levels reach 13.5% of capacity and the taps are turned off – was originally expected to take place in April, then pushed back to July. Now it has been postponed to 2019. This video shows how Capetonians are dealing with the crisis.

The three-year long drought hasn’t ended but severe water rationing has helped postpone disaster. The combined levels of dams supplying Cape Town is down to 22.7%, according to the city’s water dashboard. Capetonians have been asked to limit their water use to 50 liters (13 gallons) per person per day, and many have risen to the occasion (as a point of comparison, the average U.S. resident uses 367 liters per day, or 100 gallons).

Unfortunately, Cape Town is not an anomaly: Fourteen of the world’s megacities now experience water scarcity or drought conditions, according to Ecolab’s Water Risk Monetizer.