Millet Drive for Keita Kaw in Sitafoula

My wife, Modiere's, family in Mali had a rough farming season this year. Inconsistent rains and flocks of birds damaged a large portion of their millet crop this year. Normally, they are able to harvest 30-40 100 Kilogram sacks of millet to feed their large extended family for the year until the next harvesting season. However, this year their crop only produced 10 100 Kilogram sacks. So they are short quite a bit, and without some help the months of August and September will be quite rough. Modiere and I are doing all we can ourselves to put some money aside and send it over, but aren't able to do enough this year. My generous family and a couple friends have already committed some help. A 100 Kilo sack costs about $25-$30 this time of year. The timing is crucial as that price will skyrocket in a few months. We're looking to help purchase at least 30 sacks to get them through most of the year. Modiere and I personally plan on funding at least 10. So while I hate to beg or bother others with our own family problems, I decided to try this new concept that I found called ChipIn. Thanks for your support. I will try to provide updates and more information as we move along.

Update: Very thankful and a little overwhelmed at the support we've gotten so far. Big thanks to my brother David for the $300! Also, thanks to Roman. Aside from the $325, we've already gotten $180 from other friends and family via check as well as commitments for more! The family in Mali is going to be very happy, especially the kids going to school in the market town who will be able to stay in school because feeding them won't be a problem.

Update 2: Wow! Less than 24 hours and we're at 93% of the $600 online goal, thanks to some very generous friends and family. Modiere talked to her family today and they were very happy to hear it. Plus, if you count some other private family and friends donations we are well over this goal which means we can help even more people. There really are a lot of good people out there!

Update 3 (Feb 10, 2009): Quick update. We've been talking with various contacts in Mali to try to get a good handle on current millet prices. We are also thinking about adding some rice to the mix. Millet is at about 15,000 CFA per 100 kilo bag and rice is 18,500 CFA per 100 kilo bag. Thanks to David, Pete, Michelle and Drew, Paul and Betsy, and Roman for contributing the $555 seen below. Also, thanks to Matt and Leilani, Mary, Thomas and my parents for committing another $200 to make the total $755. With our own money added in we should be able to meet our goal of 30 100 Kilo bags. We're still working out some logistics but hope to be able to wire the money and make the purchase this weekend. Thanks a million to all who have supported us. Sitafoula Kaw ko INI CE!