Twelve Baskets Project

Current Project Information

Twelve Baskets Program for May

The month of May will not include a collection of specific items as we are focusing on a global project for this month, the Mali Health Organizing Project; the organization that Elisabeth Sederberg volunteered for last year.

The basket will be out each Sunday for you to place your monetary donations for the Mali Medical clinic, but the main focus will be the Mali Fundraiser on Sunday, May 18 after the 10:00 a.m. service. Mark your calendars to attend this special event with exotic foods, Malian dancing performed by our Sunday School kids, and a special presentation by Elisabeth Sederberg. We will have a basket out to place your donations in.

Two of the biggest problems facing the people of Mali; located in West Africa, are slum deadlock and a health crisis. Slum deadlock is a vicious cycle that has occurred because slum residents have few rights. Most are squatters who receive little help from their governments. Communities refuse to pay taxes until the government provides services, and the government refuses to provide services until the communities pay taxes. This deadlock continues indefinitely, leading to terrible infrastructure, crippling poverty, and poor health. The health crisis is extreme because people die of preventable diseases because of crowding and a lack of sanitation and health care. The solution that the Mali Health Organizing Project (MHOP) pursues is acting as a catalyst to bring slum residents and their governments together. MHOP has a unique system of four tools to break down the slum deadlock; accountability, communication, seed funding, and health organizing. People care strongly about health, so they use health as a tool to organize communities. When community committees (CCs) learn to design, implement, and evaluate their own projects, they invest in health and ask their governments to do the same. Their aim is to allow slums to create their own health care solutions, and ultimately see both the government and the slum invest in health and development without outside assistance.

St. Paul's began their involvement in the project last year, with a fundraising dinner that raised $1,700 towards a new medical clinic set to be constructed around March of 2009. The MHOP is building it in partnership with the government and the community. The community is providing 10% of the costs and the Malian government is providing 50%. The hardest part is fundraising within the community, which is impoverished, but it is an essential part of the overall plan to give the people ownership. By next March that 10% should be raised and the people are very excited about their efforts. From the US perspective, only $11,000 more is needed before starting construction. The US contribution to the cost of the clinic building is about $32,000 including the supplies (which is a big fraction). All the architect's plans, government contracts, and engineering has been done. Imagine building a medical clinic that will serve people in the poorer end of Sikoroni, a slum of 60,000 people for only $80,000! The clinic will serve 28,000 people and can be finished by next year with our help.

In the words of Mme Diaby, one of the women advocates in Sikoroni, "Poor does not mean powerless. When a child dies in your arms you ask what you did wrong. But our poverty does not equate with powerlessness. We will make this clinic happen because we need it to happen." A program like this needs both volunteers and financial resources. One such volunteer is Elisabeth Sederberg, a St. Paul's parishioner and recent college graduate who has gone to Mali twice to coordinate the health programs and found the maternal/child health project. She will be speaking at the May 18 event about the project and give us an update on the clinic. But what can those of us who live in Duluth do? We can come to the event on May 18 and give from our heart; kids can give 50 cents, adults can give $5, $50 or $500 whatever is in your means to give, and we can see this clinic being built next year and saving the lives of thousands of children, women and men for years to come!

Submitted by,
Sue Van Oss

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