Newsletter December 2019

AwArtMali project

The AwArtMali project 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. To achieve this goal, the project adopts a multi-stakeholder approach through a multi-channel awareness raising campaign and a range of training activities.

The Communication Campaign

The main element needed to achieve these goals is the direct contact with the local communities and operators. Following this path, the Italian partners (Farneto Teatro and Giusti Eventi) worked actively with the Malian communication agency Wabaria and the local NGO Le Tonus in order to directly reach the target and explore the codes and tools best suited to the Malian context to achieve an effective communication.

The product of this collaboration was a media campaign, that will develop along 7 months of activity (July 2019 – February 2020), and whose target group are young people between 18 and 40 years, but because of the widespread phenomenon, especially in the peripheral areas, it will succeed in involving a wider portion of the population.

The main objectives of media are: to inform Malians about the risks of irregular migration, to emphasize the dangers and consequences, to point out the existence of development opportunities in Mali and to reinforce the message against illegal migration. The multichannel campaign is built on both traditional media (radio) and innovative media (blogs, apps); but not only. The use of images through billboards, posters and flyers will help to spread the message, in order to reach and raise awareness among the widest sections of the population. Moreover, the slogans transmitted and the approach adopted will be tailored to the audience concerned and the broadcasting area will be the Circle of Kati and the villages of the municipalities of Kambila, Yélékébougou, Dio-Gare and Diago.

The first phase of the campaign that will be dedicated to the risks of migration, for this phase the project provides a first block of posters, flyers and billboards: 500 will be distributed for the first ones, 200 for the seconds and 3/4 large billboards placed in the entrance and exit areas of Kati. To convey the message, have been chosen phrases that refer to migration risks and opportunities in Mali, and to reach the majority of the population it was necessary to give a cultural imprint using both the French language and the Bambara one. The slogan on risks is as follows:

Ne croyez pas à tout ce qui se dit…Informez vous avant de prendre le départ!

The slogan about opportunities:

Les opportunités sont plus proches que vous ne le pensez.

La route sûr est celle qui ne vous emmène pas loin de chez vous.

A third slogan has also been produced which combines both the theme of risks and opportunities:

Avant de partir il faut d’abord s’assurer que l’avenir est sous vos pieds.

The poster campaign

The choice to raise awareness through posters, billboards and flyers, is essential for the purpose of the project and its dissemination.

The principle on which the communication campaign is based is “sharing”, so you want to share the pain, suffering, opportunities, ambitions and development possibilities. In fact, the distribution of the posters was not a simple dissemination along the city walls; it was more intense and pervasive, posters and leaflets have been spread in schools and community meetings in order to create moments of discussion on the campaign messages. For this reason, the modality that has been chosen to diffuse the campaign material is that of the direct encounter with the team of animators who walking around the villages in which the campaign will be spread will bring the posters directly in the associated life centres by meeting people.

In fact, during the campaign the posters will be an opportunity to bring together the local community of villages and neighbourhood creating a moment of debate and comparison between people of different ages and will be the occasion to: inform about the resources which will be made available with the project, inform about legal ways of migration but also to look for opportunities to lead a dignified life in Mali.