Today Mali is ranked in 186th place out of 191 countries and territories in 2021 in terms of life expectancy, literacy, access to knowledge and the living standards of a country make it well short of even sub-Saharan standards. In fact Mali is one of the 25 poorest countries in the world, let alone Africa. Life expectancy for its 21.9 million (2021) people is 58.63 years (2020) and 80% of its population rely on subsistence farming and fishing in a country where 65% of the land is either desert or semi-desert. Despite being a mainly Muslim country there are tens of thousands of AIDS orphans (Muslim countries tend, generally, to have much lower rates of the virus) and the streets of cities such as Bamako are home to thousands of abandoned children. There are a number of volunteer work opportunities in Mali however they tend to be of a specialist nature rather than general volunteering. For example volunteer projects are always on the look out for trained health care professionals and those with experience of helping develop sustainable farming and irrigation projects.

If you run or know of a volunteer work project in Mali let us know by contacting us here. We look forward to hearing from you!