ECOVA MALI is thrilled and grateful to receive support from LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics Charity Pot program to create Cosmetics' Charity field office and training center in Mali. Please see the following website to learn more about our sponsors for this project, and their many wonderful products and programs.
www.lush.com/charitypot

African farmers (including Malians) are actively rejecting GMO seeds. 

African farmers are joining coalitions with farmers from Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific and Caribbean island nations and they are receiving international attention.  West African farmers rallied together and sparked an international solidarity movement that effectively stalled the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Cancun and has dealt a permanent blow to the WTO.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0131-02.htm

Check out the cool work being done by our friends in Northern Vermont through their organization, Seeds of Self Reliance.  The co-founder, John Hayden, is also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Mali. 
www.seedsofselfreliance.org

The organization of the Poor man G8 in 2002.  This grassroots meeting was held in rural Mali as a counter summit in opposition to the concurrent meeting of the G8 in Canada.  Participants from 7 West African nations met to discuss their common struggles and goals.
http://www.geocities.com/ericsquire/articles/afr062602.htm

There was also a great deal of education about the economic, environmental, cultural, and political dangers posed by GMO crops.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4445824.stm

Malian grassroots conference on GMO crops, cotton subsidies, and African agricultural : http://www.malikounda.com/nouvelle_voir.php?idNouvelle =283

Malian villages producing their own bio-fuel from the jatropha plant
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L23480506.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jatropha
http://www.malifolkecenter.org/lowersection/Dep3_NRM/jatropha/mfc_jatropha_intro.html
  and http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/ALN /aln40/jatropha.html
http://newenergynews.blogspot .com/2007/06/jatropha-energy -in-mali.html
http://www.reuters.com/article /email/idUSL2348050620070523

Mali hosts international World Forum on Food Sovereignty in February, 2007 resulting in the amazing Declaration of Nyeleni.  To learn more, go to http://www.nyeleni2007.org and click on the en tab a the top right-hand corner of the page for the English version of the site.

The Ndekero Challenge. An innovative systems approach from rabbit keeping by a rural commnity in partnership wih a commercial rabbit farm in Kenya. http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2009/12/541-rabbit-fish-farm-wins-contest.html