Child labour is widespread in Mali, predominantly in the agricultural sector, and many children children are trafficked to Cote d'Ivoire to work on cotton and cocoa plantations or, if girls, as domestic workers in private homes. The situation is not much better in the country's own capital, Bamako, with thousands of vulnerable children living on the streets and working in unprotected, manual labour jobs to survive. In 2018, the adult literacy rate for Mali was 35.5% (though an increase from 19% in 1998). With a population of 20.25 million (2020), life expectancy in Mali
is 59.31 years (2019) and there are some
75,000 children orphaned through AIDS
alone out of a total orphan population of 710,000, although access to anti-retroviral therapy has improved noticeably over recent years.
3.5 million people in Mali don't have clean water and 11 million people don't have a decent toilet but the government has committed to provide everyone in Mali with clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene by 2030. Chronic malnutrition among children is a serious public health issue in Mali, affecting more than 26% of all those under 5 years of age. According to UNICEF, nearly half of all deaths of children under five in the country are linked to undernutrition. There are few child sponsor programs in Mali, and those that do exist are heavily focussed on education, ensuring young people can develop the knowledge and
skills to build a better future for themselves and their communities; clean
water projects; health access and providing immediate, practical assistance to
the 155,000 Malians who have fled to the south of the country to escape the
developing violence and chaos in the north. You can help when you sponsor a child in Mali.
Child Sponsor Mali: SOS Children's Villages
|
|
Child Sponsor Mali: Mali Children
|
Child Sponsor Mali: Volunteer in Mali
|
![]() |
Details of current volunteer work
opportunities in each of the
countries of Africa.
Find how to sponsor a child in Africa
with our list of organisations,
charities, programs and projects.
Discover all about Africa, its tourist
attractions, history, people, culture
and daily life there.
A treasure trove of African
resources from webcams to
free downloads and news.