Blog: Project Muso Ladamunen
Joshua Schulman-Marcus writes about Project Muso Ladamunen, an NGO based in Mali that he is involved in.
Over the past few months, I have been privileged to join a group of young Americans on the board of Project Muso Ladamunen. I thought that readers of The Lancet Student might be interested in learning about our ongoing work in the West African country of Mali
Project Muso works with Malian colleagues in Yirimadjo, a peri-urban community on the outskirts of the capital Bamako. The primary focus of our work has been to empower women through an education/literacy program, health services and literacy, professional training, access to microfinance, and health education. These numerous elements are rooted in a philosophy that escaping the “trap” of extreme poverty requires a comprehensive approach. In order to achieve early successes, we have been in frequent consultation with our advisers from Partners in Health and the Harvard School of Public Health. Additionally, we recently deepened our collabration with a well-regarded NGO Tostan. Likewise, our microfinance program has proved so popular that we are working to expand the number of loans so that women can establish their own business enterprises in fields such as hairdressing and traditional fabric-dying.
In addition, in the past year we have embarked on a major community-wide malaria program. Malaria is one of the chief causes of unnecessary morbidity and mortality in Yirimadjo, especially among the poor and children. Our comprehensive five-year program includes efforts to increase the number of insecticide-treated bed-nets available, employ community health workers to treat malaria in the field with the artemisinin-based medications, and expand local infrastructure. Additionally, in consultation with local health authorities, our project aims to subsidize user fees for both malaria and primary care for the wider community. In order to appropriately meet the medical needs and gauge the outcomes of this project, we have been employing a rigorous community-wide survey. This ambitious effort has recently earned us recognition from the newly-organized Tony Blair Faith Foundation.
Personally, I have found working with Project Muso to be both exciting and challenging. While our board and Malian colleagues share a conviction that health is a human right, we still must cope with the difficult questions of how to allocate resources knowing that every dollar matters. It is relatively easy to write an article calling for a “preferential option for the poor,” but implementing this option requires acknowledging the realities of health economics and the overwhelming amount of need. Sometimes, I have to take the position of arguing against those principles lest we extend a promise for health care that we cannot sustain. I’d be interesting in hearing from other TLS readers if they can relate to this tension.
Meanwhile, I’d like to encourage readers to check out our website at: www.projectmuso.org.
Joshua Schulman-Marcus
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