News

12 March 2020 – Although the sanitary crisis which has spread throughout Europe and despite the fact that it is impossible to travel across Europe and the strict virus containment provisions adopted by the governments of many countries, the project partners met at their third coordination meeting.
The virtual meeting touched several points, including: the development of the project activities, the monitoring and evaluation of the communication campaign in Mali, the future development of the TAMA365 campaign and the destination of the project tools, the tour, the theatrical activities, the production of the song and video clip “TUNKA” and the organization of the final event.
The meeting made possible to report the advanced state of activities in Mali and in Europe. The coordinator has in fact involved all the other coordinators on the state of the art of all the activities that in the first months of 2020 have seen a phase of realization. In addition to analyse the development, data and results of the information and awareness campaign on migration issues and development opportunities in Mali, the partners were able to share the results and discuss the sustainability potential of the project to involve strategic stakeholders within the network of relationships and contacts established thanks to the ateliers and workshops activities on the opportunities in Mali concluded at the end of January.

Mimma Gallina, the logistic of Farneto Teatro, who took care of the logistic aspects of the tour, reported that the show “TUNKA” (the “adventure” in bambara language) has always been received with great enthusiasm in the villages reached by the theatrical caravan. In fact, to the representations have regularly assisted the chiefs and the village councils, along with many women, men, children and young people of all ages. This great participation has been possible thanks to the logistic, material and cultural support that the local NGO Le tonus has had throughout the project and that, in previous months, has prepared the events with the village leaders. Added to this is the high attention given to the exhibition; the topics covered and the important information transmitted led to discussions and attracted the attention of the children, who despite not understanding much of the show, will always have a memory of that moment.
In relation to the show it is important to point out that the people reached don’t speak French, but bambara and that at the same time, as the speeches during the debates at the end of the performances, they still feel strongly attracted to the Western world and the image of “Eldorado” that they have of Europe.

To further strengthen and spread the message of awareness, among the key activities that the AwArtMali project will now elaborate there is the realization of a documentary film that will be edited by Farneto Teatro. This final product will bring together and present images and witnesses collected from the beginning of the project through interviews with migrants arriving in Europe or returning to Mali, direct meetings with the villagers, debates during and after the shows. The aim is to make migrants themselves tell their migratory experience, their sufferings, difficulties and dreams. There’s no better testimony than that of the true protagonists.

The documentary will be presented during the final conference that will be organized in Italy at the end of the project. The trailer “TUNKA” in a few minutes wants to represent the essence of the project, expressing the fears of returning migrants, the difficulties encountered, the difficult journey to Europe, showing part of the work done so far in Mali with young people (main target of the project) and the impact of the show in the villages.
Through images and direct testimonies, the message becomes stronger: you don’t have to leave your country and risk your life to have a future, there are chances also in Mali.
The final documentary film will be disseminated through all the partners’ communication channels, namely the websites, Facebook pages, blog, etc.; it will also be screened, with the support of the NGO Le tonus and the Malian communication agency Wabaria, in Bamako and in the villages involved.

The Giusti Eventi partner who has designed and managed the TAMA 365 campaign with the Malian agency Wabaria developing all the different tools such as the app and blog (www.tama365.org) presented to the partners a new product of the campaign that was developed thanks to awareness-raising activities among young Malians. Indeed, the main target of the project is represented by young people who make up the basin of potential migrants and those who see the journey to Europe as the only way to build their own future and achieve a dignified life. In this regard, the work carried out in schools for awareness raising has been crucial and has been facilitated by the commitment of teachers and school leaders, who despite the strike in Mali, have been available to carry out awareness, information and reflection activities with students. The support of the Kira Kono rap group, whose members are residents of Kati, were interested in the project and wanted to contribute to the spread of the message through the realization of a video clip and a song created starting from the communication campaign and entitled “tunka”. The videoclip was filmed at Kati’s lycée Mamby with the technical support of Farneto Teatro.

It’s important to remember that these activities represent the heart of the AwArtMali project, co-financed by the Asylum migration and Integration Fund of the European Commission, AMIF2017-AG-INFO_824407, coordinated by the Tamat NGO in partnership with Fondazione ISMU (Italy), Communication Agency Giusti Eventi (Italy), Farneto Teatro (Italy), CARDET (Cyprus), INSTRATEGIES (Spain), CONGENIA (Spain), NGO Le tonus (Mali).