In her recent visit to Mali, Dr. Sarah Sewall, the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights visited the city of Mopti where she met the regional governor and authorities and also visited with civil society organizations and NGOs. While in Mopti she visited the training facilities of the Malian NGO APROFEM (Association for the Advancement of Women and Children of Mali), which is the recipient of a grant from the U.S. Department of State to help train displaced women and victims of gender based violence with skills to create income for themselves and their families. While in Mopti, the Under Secretary announced nearly $29 million in new humanitarian assistance to benefit Malians uprooted by the conflict that broke out in 2012. The funding will support the work of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Program (WFP), and other international organizations in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger to provide essential protection and assistance, such as health, food, water, livelihoods, and education. The funding will allow UNHCR to scale up livelihoods and resilience-based interventions, increase collaboration with partners to enhance peaceful coexistence between refugees and host communities, and harmonize programming to ensure the viability and continuity of self-reliance efforts between countries of asylum and areas of return. It will also support WFP efforts to maintain food and nutrition activities for Malian refugees in the region.
