Successful conclusion of the first operational and coordination mission to Bamako. The project coordinated by Tamat Ong in Mali is now starting.
AwartMali: how to oppose irregular migration of Malian people through awareness raising and information campaigns
After 15 days of meetings and analysis, the working group coordinated by Tamat Ong and the partner Farneto Teatro in mission in Mali returned in Italy. The team, composed by Vito Simone Foresi (project coordinator), Piero Sunzini (expert in International Cooperation and director of Tamat), Denisa Savulescu (representative of Tamat in Mali) and Maurizio Schmidt (Director of Farneto Teatro Association), has worked on the field from February 13th to February 28th organizing and planning future activities of AwArtMali to bedeveloped in the African country. Main objective of the mission has been to start the project through the definition together joinlty with malian ONG Le TONUS, directed by Ahmadou Doumbia, of all logistic and organizational aspects in preparation of the activities that project’s partners must organize on the field. AwArtMali project aims to create awareness about the risks of the migration among Malian people and migrant persons coming from neighboring african countries in transit through the malian territory and to inform them on the available economic and social opportunities in Mali. A project, financed by the DG Home Affairs, Migration and Security Funds,Financial Resources and Monitoring, Union actions through the Asylum Migration andIntegration Fund (AMIF) and leaded by Tamat, Ong (20 years experienced in projects of international cooperation and development) in partnership with some Italian subjects as Foundation ISMU (Institute of studies on the Multiethnicity), the agency of communication Giusti Eventi specialized in the communication for social and no-profit campaigns and the cultural association Teatro Farneto. Adherent to the project also two Spanish partners, active in the promotion of opportunity for migrant in Spain and development of economic initiatives, Congenia and Instrategies and Cardet, Cypriot no profit organization for the research and the development, specialized in the technological applications in the formationand information for the migrant people.During the first operational mission in Koulikoro region, through meetings organized in collaboration with the malian ONG Le Tonus, the project AwArtMali has been introduced to the organization of support that will take care of all the operational aspects of it on the field. The staff of Le Tonus will be managed by the Dr. Moussa Souleymane, coordinator of project in Mali, and will involve different figures that will give specific support to the project for the communication, the logistics, organization and managing of events, the involvement of partner and local subjects in project activities and in communication events,contributing to the preparation and management of the future activities in the region of Koulikoro, in many of the ruby the rural villages in the surroundings of Kati, town that represents a focal point of passage and pressure of the flows of migration that currently interest the malian migration context. The operational phase of the project AwArtMali will produce a preparatory research report that will furnish the base analysis for the following interventions. This research report will be produced by ISMU and will identify audience, motivations, needs and formalities of access to the media system. The research will be elaborate through a survey for collecting data, opinions and points of view by testimonials, representatives of institutions and associations operating in the field of the migration in Mali. It will be made during a mission that a researcher ISMU will manage since March 9th to March 17th. The research will be based on interviews and informations picked by the researchers of ISMU among people living in local and rural malian communities, during a specific mission since March 23 to March 31. Based on the dataset and indications reached, a campaign of information tailored for the malian population will be created and managed by the partnerGiusti Eventi agency of communication in a jointly work with another agency of communication based in Mali that will develop the products of the countries and messages according to the real demands of the target of reference in Mali. Subsequently the production of a video-documentary, managed by Farneto Teatro, that will be a preparatory material to the construction of the itinerant theatrical show that will be proposed in the villages yet identified during the research and reached by the campaign.This activity will take place in June when Farneto Teatro will meet stakeholders,associations, NGOs, chiefs and relevant persons in the villages with the aim of picking up information and stories with producing a video-narration on the migratory experiences and issues through the real voices of the main subjects involved with this phenomenon.AwArtMali has been explained and presented to the Delegation of the EuropeanCommission in Mali February 22nd 2019, represented by Salvador Pinto Da França, chief of the Political Section, Press and Communication of the Delegation and Philippe Delers,encharged of EU Trust Fund for Africa in Bamako during a technical meeting on February26 with Ann Catherine Claude, encharged of the Section Economy and Governance of theDelegation EU in Mali for the initiatives and the projects related to the immigration issues.These meetings have allowed to deepen and to introduce the contents of the project and have permitted to receive better and more complete informations about other initiatives and projects of international cooperation in progress, promoted by the European Union or other international agencies, whose objectives are to create synergies in order to operate to abetter management of all the present resources in Mali and in Sahel, aimed to contrast illegal immigration a give real support to people forced to migrate by poverty and lack of real opportunities in their country of origin.
What is AwArtMali
AwArtMali aims to contribute to the change of perceptions and behaviour of Malian people looking to irregular migration towards the EU as the only solution to their socio-economic problems.
The action is intended to reach and involve Malian people in order to make them aware and inform them on the risks of irregular migration, on legal alternatives and on economic opportunities available in their country with a multistakeholder approach consisting in awareness campaign and information activities.