Great Western Studios is proud to host ‘MAGICAL MALI’, an exhibition of photography by Andy Griffiths, which documents his time spent in the country in early 2010. In aid of the Kalaban Coura Orphanage, Mali.
In February of this year, Andy Griffiths left a successful career in London to explore Mali, a country he’d read about and fallen in love with from afar. Magical Mali is a visual travelogue of his journeys through the fascinating Dogon Country and Timbuktu – and a celebration of the Malian people themselves.
Whilst in Mali, Griffiths spent time working at the Kalaban Coura Orphanage, set up two decades ago by Madame Fofana Goundourou. The relationships he developed with the children enabled him to truly capture their unwavering optimism and emotional generosity in his photographs. Madame Goundoura manages to provide clean water, food and shelter to these orphans, but they are still lacking an education. With this is in mind, all profits from this insightful and inspiring exhibition will go directly to Kalaban Coura, in the form of
equipment, teachers’ wages and uniforms, giving the children a much needed opportunity to flourish.
Artists’ Statement:
In February this year, I left my position as Head of Communications at Diesel to embark on a journey, which would take me to one of Africa’s poorest nations. To prepare myself for the 30 day voyage, I studied Mali’s 50 year history from French colony to independent nation, its inherit passion for music & its unique position straddling North Africa & Black Africa. What I discovered, I fell in love with. My exhibition is a celebration of the Malian people & their happiness in living a simple & fulfilling life.
I found the Kalaban Coura orphanage online through STAEMA, a small company focused on placing foreign volunteers in small communities where help is desperately needed. The orphanage is located in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Bamako, the capital of the Republic of Mali. Bamako is hot, polluted & fast paced yet there is an under current of African cool, you just have to look deeper to find it. It’s incredible what you’ll find in the back streets of Bamako, the dirt roads & simple homes are alive with music, drums & African rhythm & dance.
Kalaban Coura is run by a woman called Madame Fofana Fatoumata Goundourou and is assisted by 3 young girls from the local community. Goundourou started the small-scale orphanage, by chance, over 20 years ago when her sister died suddenly and left her with 9 nieces and nephews. From this moment, she has dedicated her life to caring for 37 wonderful children. The children’s ages range from 6 months to 16 years all with similar stories of abandonment or through a chronic illness. Like most orphans, their families were too poor to afford medical care.
My goal was to capture the orphans’ inherent sense of caring for each other, which, as westerners, we can easily lose sight of. Many people ask me if it changed my life – it didn’t. My experience reconnected me with a heightened sense of our values, especially nurturing & caring for one another. I want the photographs to show a bustling sense of laughter, fun, optimism & personality from wonderfully unique characters.
Almost everything you use in Mali (transport, the local fruit market, sport clubs) is community funded, simply, because the Malian Government is too poor to fund most public services. Basic needs, that we would expect to have, such as schools, roads or hospitals are of such poor quality, that families & communities in Mali have no other choice but to rely on each other.
The survival of this orphanage is dependent strictly on contributions from the local community (mainly food), visits by foreign volunteers and financial assistance from rare projects such as this.
These wonderful children have water, which is filtered from a local well, three meals a day & shelter at night. What these children need most of all, is an education. An education ensures a greater knowledge of hygiene, contraception &, of course, language. Every photograph purchased, will ensure a child has an education at a local school with a trained teacher, uniform, books & pencils. 100% of the proceeds from this exhibition will go to the orphanage; no middle-men taking their cut; no agency fee; no commission.
This is a non-profit charitable project. I believe without projects like mine, the reality for orphans like this would be abandonment, which includes living on the street without food & no shelter. With Goundourou’s dedication & lifelong generosity, these children know what it feels like to have someone, who cares for them, wakes them up every morning & tucks them into bed each night.
