Help Children in Mali

Our Work for Children in Mali

There is a great need and demand for Save the Children's programs in Mali, where we have worked since 1987. Thanks to our supporters, we are a leading charity for Mali’s most vulnerable children, implementing programs in health and nutrition, education and livelihoods, and child protection, as well as emergency response.

Most of our current programming focuses on health and nutrition. Our education work focuses on access and quality of education, as well as water, sanitation and hygiene at schools. While our child protection projects focus on community-based case management and the establishment of child-friendly spaces. Many of these projects are implemented in the context of emergency response.

Here are some recent examples of our work:

A healthy start in life

• Since 2004, we have been the newborn health lead on the USAID flagship maternal, newborn and child health programs in 30 countries, including Mali – including the Access to Clinical and Community Maternal, Neonatal and Women’s Health Services program (ACCESS, 2005-2009), the Maternal & Child Integrated Program (MCHIP, 2010-2014), and the Maternal & Child Survival Program (MCSP, 2015-2019)
• Building on emerging evidence on the importance of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programs to improved nutrition, we’re implementing our signature Clean Household Approach, using effective behavior change, marketing and policy strategies to promote household behaviors that reduce the risk of childhood diarrhea and other conditions
• We led a six-year USAID-funded project, called Project Nutrition et Hygiène project (2013 2019), which supports harmonizing the actions of communities, the Ministry of Health and the private sector to improve the growth and development of Mali’s children, supporting the integration of quality nutrition counseling into routine service delivery, using a variety of community-based approaches
• Along with partners, we’re implementing a multi-year, USAID-funded Development Food Security Activities project to address undernutrition and chronic food insecurity through targeted food assistance and/or cash and multi-sectoral interventions
• We’re implementing our integrated community case management (iCCM) approach in Mali, a broadly endorsed global strategy to reduce child mortality, in which a health system trains, supplies and supervises community health workers to manage sick children who have limited access to facility-based health services – delivering appropriate, lifesaving treatments closer to where children live

The opportunity to learn

• Through our early learning programs, we’re supporting knowledge, behavior and physical growth to ensure a healthy and positive foundation that prepares children for success – in school and life
• We’re improving education for children by helping them learn vital reading and writing skills in early grades and by promoting an environment that protects children and supports their learning 
• We’re bringing safe, clean water to communities and schools in impoverished areas, as well as providing malaria treatments, deworming and micronutrient supplies to prevent children suffering from preventable and treatable diseases, such as malaria, anemia and various hygiene-related illnesses, as well as waterborne illnesses like cholera, typhoid and diarrhea
• We hosted nearly 10,000 young people and adults in information sessions about teen pregnancy, as part of outreach efforts in 45 villages, resulting in significant reduction in teen pregnancies
• Now, we’re working on seasonal malaria chemotherapy for school-age children, piloting the use of two different platforms – testing reaching children through communities vs. schools

Emergency response

• Our Household Economy Analysis approach is being used to inform national plans to reduce poverty and early warning systems in several countries African countries, including Mali