Dear Friend,

I have been living in chaotic Bamako, Mali for three weeks now, learning a great deal about how things function (and often don’t function) here and working to do my part to improve the health situation on behalf of Adopt A Doctor.

I am excited to report that despite delays due to developing world bureaucracy, a slow pace of life, lack of technology, and poor infrastructure, I have now made real progress in improving access to lifesaving medical care by establishing a new, innovative HIV treatment program in the village of Sikoro.

Providence-based non-profit GAIA Vaccine Foundation runs a medical clinic in the village of Sikoro, a semi-urban village that is part of Bamako, the capital city of Mali. The population of Sikoro is about 50,000 (population of Bamako is 1.2 million). Sikoro is one of the poorest villages in Bamako.

There are two doctors who treat patients at the clinic, Dr. Malick Kone and Dr. Adama Daou, both supported with funding from Adopt A Doctor. The clinic does mother-to-child HIV transmission prevention, delivers babies, and provides a host of other medical services for patients, including HIV-positive patients.

One service that the clinic has been unable to provide, however, is prescriptions for life-saving antiretrovirals (ARVs), the drugs used to treat HIV. Drugs for HIV patients are 100% free for everyone in Mali due to a $23 million grant from the Global Fund in April 2005. However, so few people here receive this free treatment, a result of a very poorly designed system. These medications are only prescribed at major health centers (”Centers of Reference”), of which only 4 exist. These centers are often too far and too expensive for many Malians to reach.

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