A large number of the residents of the villages and the countryside on the border between Mali and Mauritania struggle daily with the problem of providing drinking water, as they use traditionally dug wells where access to water is difficult.

The terms "drug sellers on the ground" or "pharmacy on the ground" refer to vendors offering drugs on the sidewalk. The phenomenon is increasing day by day in Bamako, as everywhere in Mali. It is, apparently, beyond any control.

To survive, many poor people in Bamako have embarked on the collection of household and industrial waste dumped in the landfills in the capital. They sell the waste later for a few hundred CFA francs* to individuals or companies specializing in waste treatment. Although the activity allows them not to starve, it is not without any risk..

Children begging in Mali in general and in Bamako in particular, has become a very serious scourge. These children spend their time begging at the traffic lights, in religious shrines and very often in front of hotels.

From March 2012 until May 2015, the Kidal hospital was in the dark. A power generator was available at the hospital, in the north of Mali, to provide the necessary care to patients. However, this generator works intermittently and trained personnel are not available in adequate numbers.

Since its release in 2014, the film Timbuktu, also called "The Grief of Birds," is still harvesting awards internationally. In 2015, it was rewarded by seven Cesars including the best film Cesar and the best director one, too.

Lalla Tahara a disabled woman never stops fighting. All her life, she has been adamant to prove that handicap should not be ground for exclusion in the Timbuktu society where to be disabled is akin to divine curse.

«Sometimes you have to travel far before you realise the wealth of your history and culture and see the values of things close to you». This is exactly what happened to Halim Sba’i, president of the organisation «Zaïla» in Sahara M’hamid El Ghizlane, south east of Morocco.