YAPASDEPROBLEME HOTEL started in 2005. After the three first years of functioning, we wanted to take an active part and help the development of Dogon Country. Tourism highly expanded in the last years, but the distribution of the profits is very unfair, and actually the villages do not take much advantage of those profits. Moreover, the touristic area in the Dogon country is mainly concentrated along the cliff, and the areas located in the plain and the plateau stay isolated from touristic tours. Therefore, the hotel decided to create and to finance an association of solidarity to support projects of development in the non touristic areas of the Dogon country.

First, we wanted to deal with the problem of rural depopulation of girls. In Mali, every year, a large number of girls, between 10 and 15 years old, leave their village for an exodus in town where they work as “little maids”. Most of the time, they are exploited, working 10 hours a day for a salary of 6 euros on average, they don’t go to school, and are subjected to urban violence (risks of unwanted pregnancies, Aids, “MST”, mistreatment…). Therefore, we realized projects to promote literacy for the girls in their village. At the same time, they receive a microcredit, allowing them to get an activity  creating a profit. With the money of the microcredit, the girls may have the choice between fattening, market gardening or small trade. The fattening consists in buying a sheep, fattening it and then selling it with profit. For the market gardening, the girls grow “dogon onions”, aubergines, sweet potatoes…, then they sell the vegetables in the nearby markets. Small trade applies to the sale of material, craft industry, cereals…