KickStart Opens New Office in Mali

KickStart opened a new office in Bamako, Mali in November 2004. Ryan Roberge is our new Country Director for Mali. Ryan has extensive experience in Mali and in West Africa. He came to us from Associates in Rural Development, Inc. Since December we have established 18 pump retail shops in Mali and over 100 pumps have already been purchased by poor farmers.

Mail is a very poor country in West Africa and the home of Timbuktu. The Niger River is the country’s lifeline. Many thousands of poor farmers toil daily with buckets to irrigate tiny plots of land along the river – but with our pumps they will soon be able to greatly increase their plot sizes, their yields and their incomes.