In all the Gao area life is unbelievably hard. May. Rarely is the searing air cooler than 90 degrees. For five months sand storms appear, sweeping in like great tan walls to rake the terrain with gritty blizzards. Most people are wretchedly poor. With unemployment running about 80 percent, many families are unable to feed their children adequately and malnutrition is commonplace.
Sanitation is almost nonexistent.
So are latrines. Access to clean water is a luxury. With the milky-brown Niger River coursing through the region, mosquitoes swarm everywhere and malaria claims many lives each year. World Vision came to Mali in 1975. Desertification and recurring droughts had killed many of the flocks of goats and camels that sustain desert nomads.