Mali Medical Relief Fund

Our mission is simple. We provide direct medical care to needy patients in Mali in the form of hospital bill and pharmacy reimbursement. Your funds pay directly for medical care for those in need. All our staff are volunteers.

Where do we work? We work in Mali, a land locked country in West Africa. Home of the famed Timbuktu, today Mali is one of the world’s most desperately poor regions.

Who do we work with? We treat any and all patients identified at hospitals and villages throughout the country who have urgent medical needs and cannot otherwise afford treatment.

Who are we? We are a small group of Malian doctors and American medical students and volunteers dedicated to improving the health of some of Mali’s poorest citizens.

What does your donation buy? Your donation pays directly for medicines and medical care. Just $7-10 can treat an infant’s meningitis; $25 can pay for an adolescent’s pneumonia; $35 can provide for an echocardiogram; $150 pays for life saving emergency surgery.

How can I help? We have a number of ways to help. You can make tax-deductible donations to Mali Medical Relief through the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center (501c3) online or via regular mail to Jeannette Rankin Peace Center, 519 South Higgins Avenue, Missoula, MT. 59801. If you are planning travel to Mali, you can help by making a site visit with our Malian doctors on the ground. Volunteer opportunities are also available.

How we got our start: Our project began with a simple e-mail home. In August of 2007, Breanna Barger set out to begin a year-long research training program in malaria. Towards the end of her stay in April of 2008, she began working at Gabriel Touré National Hospital in Bamako, Mali. In the pediatric emergency room, Breanna recognized the incredible need of the patients and families.

When two of her patients died because of delayed antibiotic treatment she knew she had to do more to help. She wrote home of these stories and asked her friends and family to send what they could. Just $5-10 could help treat a child’s pneumonia or meningitis. The out-pouring of support was more than expected; in just one week donations totaled more than $4000. The project’s design was simple. After morning patient visits (rounds) the doctors and students would identify those patients with needs. They compiled a list of prescriptions and orders for tests, which were then filled by Breanna and other medical students with money from donations. The best part of the morning was delivering the medicines to the families, and seeing what genuine relief and gratitude they had for this life saving support. The project was such a success that by the end of May a number of Malian medical students became involved and the program’s mission was expanded to the Point G National Hospital to treat urgent surgical cases. A month later, at the end of Breanna’s stay, the project had helped 33 patients with problems as diverse as meningitis, malaria, tuberculosis, amputations, and abdominal surgery.

Where we hope to go: With your support, we hope to make our project sustainable year round. We continue to target emergency surgery and pediatrics as our volunteers are currently placed within these departments. With additional interest and resources we would like to expand into other departments. We are also looking for support for medical training and resources, to ensure that our beneficiaries receive the highest quality medical care available in Mali. Donations of medical texts are welcome in either English or French. Examining equipment such as stethoscopes, ophthalmoscopes, and otoscopes are especially needed. (We are unable to accept donations of medicines at this time.)

Success stories: In one particularly touching case, a 12-year-old boy had a horribly mangled leg after several bricks fell on him while playing near a construction site. Surgeons were unable to save his leg, but the donations paid for the amputation, hospital stay, and his new prosthesis. Without the help of Mali Medical Relief, he would not have been able to make the 3 km walk to school, as the family has no alternative form of transportation and the school is not equipped to deal with handicapped children. In another memorable case, parents traveled for hundreds of miles from a small village in southern Mali with their thirteen-year-old daughter who was suffering from peritonitis, a condition that can be rapidly fatal. By the time they arrived at the hospital she was deteriorating quickly. The voyage had nearly bankrupted the family, and they could not afford the medicines or surgery she required. Mali Medical Relief covered her surgical and hospital care, and two weeks later she was able to return home.

The mission expanded as needs arose: We paid for a village chief’s prostate cancer surgery and we helped to treat a medical student who otherwise would have had to drop out of classes to work and pay for his medical bills.

How your donations are spent: We are a virtually zero-overhead organization. All money donated to Mali Medical Relief has gone to direct patient care. For non-profit status and tax purposes, we are associated with the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center, a non-profit community organization whose mission is to promote peace, social justice, and sustainability both locally and globally. A 10% donation is given to the JRPC and is the only portion of your donation which does not go directly to needy patients. We are currently in the process of becoming an independent non-profit organization.

For more information, please contact malimedrelief@gmail.com. Click here if you would like to make a donation and support continuing efforts.

What our donors and volunteers have to say about Mali Medical Relief Fund:

“I have never been as gratified with my giving as with the Mail Medical Relief Fund, I am consistently amazed at how much impact even $50 can have.”
Morgan -Missoula, MT

"The email updates we donors receive are exceptional; detailing expenditures right down to the child and procedure."
Jennifer –Portland, OR

"The Mali Medical Relief Fund has made a huge impact on our surgery service. We may not be changing the world, but we change the world for someone."
Zackari –Bamako, Mali

"We knew our help would go directly to the families that needed it, no administrative costs, no billing, no middlemen. Money goes towards directly saving lives!"
Linda and Elise -Missoula, MT