One of the Alliance Rock Stars: Teningnini Diakite
Mariam Diakite said Teningnini is the Ouelessebougou Alliance Program Manager in Mali. Prior to that position, Teningnini worked for the Ouelessebougou Women micro-credit fund in Ouelessebougou. She has been working for the Alliance for almost two decades as the Health Coordinator and the Program Manager. Additionally, she cooks for our guests (expeditions) during their visits to Ouelessebougou. She is a wonderful cook and always cooks delicious food.
Teningnini also plays a significant role in facilitating our education and health programs. She works directly with Village Health Workers in our 25 villages and Education Councils in our 12 partner primary schools in order to fulfill the work of the Alliance and ultimately influence change in village communities. She trains the villages’ Health Matrons and Apprentices in field of sanitation and hygiene, nutrition, and disease prevention. She also oversees the Alliance’s Days for Girls micro-enterprise at the Ouelessebougou Alliance’s compound and educates thousands of women and girls on women’s health education and feminine hygiene solutions. In addition, she organizes and prepares for the Ouelessebougou annual medical expeditions and helps facilitate access to specialized health care. Teningnini and her husband, and her three daughters live in Ouelessebougou and in Bamako.
Teningnini says that she likes everything about her job and work with our medical teams, women, and girls, and even men in our villages. She gains personal satisfaction with her work, particularly serving people. She really likes serving and helping people, especially women and disadvantaged people. Teningnini is grateful for the opportunity to serve her community. She mentions that the Ouelessebougou Alliance’s work has had great impacts on her personal life. She continues, “I was able to send all my children to school until they graduated. It has helped me purchashe clothes and food and pay medical bills. Additionally, I am able to financially help some of my siblings.”
Teningnini believes the Alliance’s work is unique and its close relationship with its partnered villages and health agents, matrons, education and health councils are what make the organization successful. These people come from their communities and they know their people and the problems that prevent them to develop it in a sustainable way. Teningnini says “The fact that I get to wake up in the morning and get to work in an office is a privilege and makes me happy.”
Ouelessebougou Alliance is grateful for the work Teningnini has contributed and done in the past twenty years to contributing and strengthening our health and education programs in the Ouelessebougou region. In this pandemic time, Teningnini and the rest of the Ouelessebougou Alliance staff visit our villages and share with them some credible information on COVID-19 and teach them how to prevent the virus and the symptoms of it. Our villagers have appreciated the Ouelessebougou Alliance staff for sharing this important information. Teningnini, is key to this success as she has years of training and experience in health and disease prevention.