Gao, Mali: Premise Partners With Local Youth Organizations to Hold WASH Events  

by | Mar 23, 2023

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A young man holds the hose from which water pours out into large water containers.

A youth volunteer helps distribute potable water to community members at an event co-hosted by Premise and two Malian youth organizations.

Technology is transforming the way society functions, making tasks easier and helping to solve problems. At Premise, we use technology to gather critical information from locals—our Contributors—to report on real-life events around the world. We use crowdsourcing to work with varied customer types, from government agencies, global public health entities like the WHO, and forward-thinking consumer goods companies like Unilever.  

 

Through data collection operations within vulnerable communities, win-win opportunities can unfold 

When operating in remote, challenging, and vulnerable locations, Premise taps into a worldwide network of voluntary partnership commitments and multilateral affiliates. 

By working directly with private and public community leaders on the ground, Premise engages in inclusive partnerships that foster long-term relationships at the global, regional, national, and local levels. 

Whether we are collecting data in a remote town of 5,000 people in Argentina or small communes across the Sahel, Premise partner affiliates serve as strategic alliances that provide thought leadership and Premise app training to vulnerable populations. 

 

Providing the means to the most niche forms of data collection methodologies

We partner with the on-the-ground Premise Contributor network to prepare and supply real-time, fast, and at-scale data to our customers no matter the remoteness of the desired location—like in the small remote commune towns sitting within the city of Gao, Mali.  

Due to a history of security challenges, these commune towns often face great difficulty in accessing essential services, like water, due to being caught in the crosshairs of a proxy war. Yet, ironically, 100% of Malians have a mobile connection, unfolding the capability of the Premise app and the opportunities it brings with it. 

 

Partnering with community leaders and international humanitarian actors under one common cause: supporting youth

The Conseil Régional and National de la Jeunesse de Gao—CRJ-Gao and CNJ-Gao—are regional and national associations within the National Youth Council of Mali that aim to unite positive change amongst the youth (ages 18 to 35), who make up 75% of the Malian population. The Council is also a direct partner of the United Nations (UN) Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). 

 

A win-win partnership  

Our partners approached us with the idea of promoting the Premise app by co-hosting a community event that would help promote their organization’s mission of supporting and engaging Malian youth as well as ours, to reach more locals with smartphones. Thus, the Role of Youth in Peacebuilding event was held in person from August 6-7, 2022 in Gao, Mali.

Ahead of the Role of Youth in Peacebuilding event, Premise hosted two, two-day Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) events in July and August to attract a wide variety of demographics to the main peacebuilding event. During the WASH days, Premise, together with our partners, distributed large water jugs, hygiene materials, and fresh water and held training sessions on good hygiene habits and healthy routines. Premise Global Workforce Team members also worked to build trust in the community and educate people about the Premise app.

“Thank you, Premise, for teaching our youth good habits and healthy routines—for using the Premise app to educate the Malian youth. It was the youth who called upon the community to attend this activity. These cultural or artistic activities, and even conferences, can allow people to have positive exchanges amongst dangerous conditions. So we thank you.” 

– Abdoulaye Mahamadou, Gao resident and youth leader

The events were huge successes: the young Malians mobilized hundreds of people from remote towns to attend focus groups with Premise in-country representatives. Discussions centered around peacebuilding and how Premise supports the missions of CNJ and CRJ to promote peace with youth to counter violent extremism and terrorism in Mali.

 

A woman indicates to a man something on a smartphone.

A Premise Country Engagement Coordinator demonstrates how to use the Premise app at the community WASH event.

 

Premise continues to leverage community-led partnerships like these when approached with challenging network needs from customers. 

At our core, Premise aims to be a positive, educational, resourceful, and impactful tool. We want to encourage youth to make their voices heard and even become leaders within their communities, like these Malian youth are beginning to do.  

 

About Premise

Premise offers a unique ability to quickly source information from real people on the ground in hard-to-reach places. Over five million people in more than 144 countries are using the Premise app on their smartphones, enabling our customers to monitor a situation over time and employ a data-driven approach to timely decision-making. To learn more about Premise, check out our four-minute tech demo or get in touch with us today.