Hello, we write to you about the emergency situation that our beloved Mama Kone, Grigri Pixel participant in 2018, from Côté Cour in Bamako is experiencing at the moment due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

It turns out that while the state of emergency was declared in Mali on March 26, which meant the closure of the country’s borders and the curfew, Mama Kone  developed her Art Femmes festival, a training proposal, which she has been developing since 2016, to train women, both Malians and from other neighboring countries, in the various disciplines of the performing arts .  This year, from their festival, they were offering those trainings to more than 60 women in a program that was taking place between March 5 and 30.

Among the participants are 11 women and 3 men from different countries of the sub-region – here their names and countries of origin – who have not been able to return to their homes due to the closure of borders. You can find here their names and their countries: Fatou Diop – Sénégal, Thérèse Guillaume N’Diaye – Guinée Conakry, Hodonou Heredia Leirisse – Benin, Kodjo-Atsou Notson – Togo, Yalikhatou Sylla – Guinée- Conakry, Valerie Nacoulma – Burkina Faso, Wend guieta Edwige Ouedraogo – Burkina Faso, Maimouna Sanou – Burkina Faso, Douriyath Témitokpe Sèchéton Dansou – Benin, Catherine Tienourgo Coulibaly – Côte d’Ivoire, Zida Orakia – Burkina Faso, Idrissa Sawadogo – Burkina Faso, Louis Isidore – Guinée Conakry y Nikiema Faycal – Burkina Faso

These 14 people are blocked in Bamako and housed in the Mama Kone space without any financial or logistical support, neither from their countries of origin nor from Malian institutions.

After several conversations with Mama Kone and sharing their financial difficulties to take care of these 14 people for an indefinite time, we thought that from the Grigri Pixel program it was necessary and pertinent to share their situation.

For this reason and depending on the possibilities of each one, we appeal to your solidarity and empathy regarding this situation, showing your support with some small  financial contribution (contacting her by email cotecourt1@gmail.com or by whatsapp: +223 76490775), or by sharing this message and echoing the situation.

We also encourage other African cultural actors in this network to share and make visible the difficult situations they are experiencing due to this complex situation after the state of alarm by the COVID 19 virus.

We believe that the magic of collaboration and reciprocity must also be felt and present in these difficult times.