As May continues, our party leaders including Yeah headed to the remote areas in Mali. Much of Mali’s population resides in these rural villages. There are about 18000+ villages in Mali, many of which are accessible by only dirt roads.

It has been a busy time for Team Samake! In addition to visiting many villages, our efforts have been focused getting  our youth enthused.

VISIT TO BONKORO 

In May, Yeah and his delegation headed to the village of Bonkoro which is in the commune of Beleko. Bonkoro is only accessible by very bumpy dirt roads. While in Bonkoro, Yeah visited with the chief of the village. While in Bonkoro, the villagers gathered in large numbers to hear Yeah discuss his vision and his bold plan for a better Mali.

YEAH4MALI SOCCER CUP 

The youth leaders of our party headed to Senou where they participated in hosting the Yeah Samake football cup. The event marked the opening of 3 weeks of competition between the different football clubs of Senou. Football events are a great way to engage our youth and it gives our youth leaders a chance to share about Yeah’s mission to build a better Mali for all our youth that will provide better opportunities and jobs for them. Currently Mali’s unemployment is a steep 35%+ and there is a lack opportunities for our youth.

Before the match Yeah had an opportunity to share his vision for Mali with the youth of Senou. We are blessed to have such a great team of youth leaders in all the areas of Mali that share our plans on how Yeah can build a better Mali.

YOUTH VOLUNTEERS COMMIT

The highlight of our visits and meetings this past week culminated in a meeting that was held for the youth. Despite the rains, 200+ youth leaders, from the 6 communes of the main city of Bamako, gathered at the party headquarters to hear Yeah speak. Hearing of all that Yeah has done for Mali and the potential of what he can achieve for the youth, they committed to devoting their time and efforts to spread the word about Yeah in their own communities and social groups. This is huge!! The waterfall impact of this could be a wider reach of Yeah’s message to different communities that these youth work and live in.

The reach of our message of service as leadership change is growing. Popular support for Yeah is growing faster than party organization. This month we opened new regional offices in the main city of Segou, Senou and Sirakoro in the Sikasso region.

Additionally, Yeah is constantly on regional and national radio and on TV talking about his platform and sharing his message with the people of Mali.

We are making leaps and bounds reaching the far corners of Mali.  Yeah is one of the only candidates that was actually born and brought up in the rural areas. So he is familiar with the conditions that 80% of Malians have lived in for the last 58 years. He understands what it means to not have enough to eat, what it means to not have a job after graduation, what it means to support a big family. Here is a candidate who understands what a majority of the Malian people are suffering from because he himself has been through all the conditions that besiege ordinary Malians. Here is a Malian who has turned his own community of 55,000+ people and hopes to share its success with all Mali.

I believe he is the man Mali desperately needs.