From Montana to Mali

By DANIEL PERSON Chronicle Staff Writer

In a small village, population 1,000, in the African country of Mali, 15 children under 5 died of malaria in August.

Two months later, in October, a small class of Montana State University students brainstormed ways that the village could keep such a catastrophe from happening again.

By semester’s end, solutions the students devise should be implemented in that village. In that way, while many of the students may never set foot in Mali, their presence will be felt.

This is what professor Florence Dunkel calls the “Quiet Revolution,” a new approach to Third World assistance that relies less on dollars and more on working with local cultures and knowledge to put village residents in the driver’s seat of their progress.

Dunkel leads a 400-level course every semester to help students who hope to work in the developing world understand the approach, which has been embraced by thinkers like William Easterly, author of “The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good.”

But the problems the students address are not written up in a textbook, they are problems happening in real time.

“I’ve been studying Africa and issues in Africa for eight years or more,” student Pauline Powers-Peprah said. “All that time, it’s been my desire to find a way in which I can help in a health aspect. This is the first time I feel like I’m actually doing something in that respect.”

Several years ago, Dunkel, who has a doctorate in entomology, the study of insects, and professors at several other U.S. universities got a grant to work on pest management in Mali. She and the other professors were teaching courses at the same time, creating a hectic schedule. So in 2000, they merged their courses, creating a program wider in scope and one that has been growing ever since.

A class last year helped people in Mali develop cottage industries.

Another class helped farmers develop certified disease-free seed potatoes.

When a midwife in the village of Sanambele reported the news of the deadly malaria outbreak in a phone call, this semester’s class focused on the disease.

During one class, Dunkel began by showing raw video of people in Sanambele going about their lives, eating, working and dancing.

From there, the students pored over correspondence with scientists and others in Mali to weed out what political, social and financial barriers may stand in the way of a solution.

To diagram MSU’s efforts in Mali, Dunkel drew layers on a piece of paper. At the center are five Malian villages’ “holistic goals,” which address all aspects of the village, not just economic needs.

Atop those goals is a layer of Malian agricultural scientists and professors, educated at MSU and other partner universities, who serve as a link between village residents and the final layer, U.S. students and faculty.

In late October, student YungBen Yelvington said the students’ work on the malaria issue had begun to make it back to Mali.

“We’re in regular phone contact with the village,” he said.

He said the class has been informative and rewarding.

“It’s really cool to see how little most of the world lives on - but also disturbing,” Yelvington said.

The process has not been without its challenges, Powers-Peprah said.

Speaking to the members of the village takes one interpreter translating from the local Mali language to French, then another interpreter translating from French to English.

And recently, the Malian government has stepped in to be involved with the exchange of ideas, in effect adding another layer between MSU and Sanambele.

But Powers-Peprah said the challenges have been educational themselves, and that the class is still moving forward on attacking malaria from all angles.

Some of her classmates are look at how the village can reduce poverty. Others are investigating what medicinal plants could be harvested around Sanambele.

Powers-Peprah said she is hoping to better educate parents about how they can protect their children - especially those in the vulnerable 0 to 5 age group - from malaria.

Yelvington hopes to eventually work in the environmental policy arena, with a focus on the developing world. He said this class is giving him skills for that pursuit. By focusing on a single problem in a single village, the class can help achieve real results.

“We focus on a small area,” he said, “for a tangible difference.”

Daniel Person can be reached at dperson@dailychronicle.com or 582-2665.

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