Michel Okan and Daniel Massamba have put a smile on the kids’ faces in Tabankort

 

Everyone agrees on the idea that children are the future of the world, and they... represent humankind’s hopes for tomorrow. While in work duty on Saturday 18 February 2017 (some 200 km north of Gao) on behalf of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali known as MINUSMA, I had no idea that donating soccer balls will bring a smile back to kids of Tabankort.

Unrest is persistent in that area because of its strategic location on an important route for both legal and illegal trade through the desert from the Cité des Askia to Algeria. The last time children went to school, the only Ecole Fondamentale’ existing in the area, was in January 2012 when jihadists invaded the north of Mali. Various jihadists and uncontrolled armed groups battled for control of the area for economic and geopolitical gains.

I was part of the joint mission heading to Tabankort to monitor the efforts and progress of the construction of a 750-ex-combatants cantonment site. Work started in December 2016.  On my last visit to the area about a year ago, I was saddened to see a group of children idling in the schoolyard while all the classrooms were locked. Few kids were playing a small ball made of scraps of fabric while others were watching. That’s when I decided to bring them some soccer balls on my next visit.

Three days before I flew to Tabankort by the U.N. helicopter, I went to see my colleague Michel Okan in his room. I found four soccer balls lying on the floor of his room and immediately asked if I could pick one or two balls to be given to children. Surprisingly he said, “Grab all the balls”. What a beautiful gesture from Michel!

I handed the soccer balls to kids in their schoolyard in the presence of members of the MINUSMA’s joint mission and some local chiefs. Upon receiving the balls, they started playing around.

Happy that Michel and I have put smiles on the faces of the children in Tabankort!

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