Hakili Sigira

As I near the end of my service in Mali, I cannot help but feel my time here is just starting. I guess that’s the big pay off for sticking it out the full two years; to realize at the end that it all has just begun. The best part is that in recognizing how little time I have here left I can savor the passing moments: working with the tailor, participating in the daily shop talk and gossip, attending my association’s adult literacy classes with my teacher and being so proud of what amazing strides these women have taken in such a short time. Feeling accepted, loved and at home where before I felt uncomfortable, hot, guilty and so very alone.



The last few months have been a whirlwind of soul searching, hosting, teaching and learning for me. I helped train a promising new group of volunteers in February who helped me realize just how much I’ve accomplished here already and motivated me to finish off my service strong and with good intentions - something that is often forgotten amongst end of service volunteers with temptations of “senioritis.” Then, my home that I miss so much was brought to me when my cousin came to visit with her friend in March. While it was challenging to represent my whole life here in a short three weeks, whilst acting as their translator and tour guide, the rewards of quality time outweighed the company stress. And after short recuperation, I was back at site, full of my overload with American time and ready to reassess why I’m here and what I want to show for it.



I came back to a surprisingly prepared women’s association, all geared up and ready to realize their dream. They had the plans, the trainers and most importantly, the budget outline ready for me to write up a proposal in hopes of getting a SPA (small project assistance) grant through Peace Corps and USAID. Only five weeks later and I’m here in Bamako, waiting for my 4 million CFA grant (about $8,000.00) to build a multifunctional education and sewing center for my women’s association that is open to all women in the community. The center will start primarily to teach sewing as a skill, but the space is available for their adult literacy classes (funded by my stateside mothers) as well as nutrition and HIV/AIDS trainings and a community garden. And my favorite part – they’ll be learning to sew on recycled plastic bags picked up locally and sell the products for a profit.



It’s truly amazing to be at this point in my service. I’m at the best my language can be, I’m working with highly motivated community members who make my volunteer work effortless, and I have strong relationships with people here who trust me, I trust them and we are truly the happiest just to be around each other.

My counterpart and friends keep asking me to extend another year (or two or three!) and when they look at me and I think about all they have done for me these last two years, it breaks my heart to tell them “no.” I simply say, “My mother will not agree. She will not be happy and she wants me home NOW!” That, they understand, because mothers are the most important.

Project MU-SEW

I am happy to report a successful technical exchange I took with my community counterpart, and the President of my women’s association. We toured the northern part of the Segou region, meeting with women's centers and associations involved in female empowerment and income generating activities in hopes of opening a women's cooperative center with the members in our community

We started the exchange in Markala with an adult literacy group. They hold basic Bambara reading and writing classes and basic math once a week in the volunteer’s counterpart’s concession. They were provided literacy books from peace corps and the chalkboards, chalk and notebooks were provided with funding by the Peace Corps Volunteer.


In Niono, we visited the “Center for sewing and cutting,” of which the current PCV serving there has contributed to their impressive organization.

The center highlighted their teaching approach for their students, starting with sewing simple straight lines, moving on to making patterns from paper and then on to childrens’ clothing. Additionally, they hold seminar trainings on HIV/AIDS, female circumcision, nutrition, cooking and other useful information for their demographic of younger troubled teens.

As an added bonus (!) I gave them samples of my recycled plastic bags and they LOVED them. And want to start producing them right away. Niono is a dirty town, I mean dirty... and these plastic trash bags are everywhere with no real solutions. So small projects like this could make a real impact and raise awareness.

At the debrief with our association following the technical exchange, their enthusiasm for the project increased ten-fold. They are actively in touch with many associations in their communities who make soap, shea butter and are interested in food drying. My association is VERY interested in starting a sewing center and literacy classes, and they have a strong partnership with my counterpart NGO, where they would provide information seminars on topics such as AIDS, nutrition and female circumcision.
Seeing those associations in action was invaluable. The association's President was inspired and motivated. It was very important for her to see a successful Malian organization because simply hearing it from me, the "toubabu" sounds like folklore. Witnessing the determination of the other associations showed her that opening a center like this takes tremendous work but is entirely possible.

I am actively looking for potential sponsors for the center and have a few inquiries already, but am putting some of the pressure on the association and my counterpart to utilize all of their resources first, before I can contribute my part in assisting them with realizing their goal.