Travel Guide Teriyabougou

Teriyabougou is half way between Bla and San. There is a need to go by car, no public transport serving the village. A sign shows the 40 km track to take on the left. Located on the edge of the Bani, tributary of Niger, Teriyabougou (meaning «box of friendship» in bambara) was created years ago by Father Bernard Verspieren. The man, who died in October 2003, had arrived in Mali in 1946 and had lived there for more than fifty years. He left the cassock to focus on the development of this region. Today, it is a centre of solidarity tourism composed of bungalows, a restaurant, a seminar centre, a museum, with ecological and cultural discoveries… but it is also a village of 500 people, with a school, adult literacy courses, a clinic-maternity, a co-operative. Tourism resources and revenues are redistributed in the form of local salaries.The village is powered by solar energy. Pumps provide water requirements and irrigate mango fields, banana trees, millet and rice fields. Father Verspieren had planted eucalyptus trees, trees that acclimatised well in the country, even though they did not originate. The village produces natural gas (biogas), produced through cattle droppings. Wind turbines complement the range of natural energies that make this village an example to follow both by the Malian authorities and by the technical advisers of various foreign cooperation. The clinic is equipped with solar water heaters that allow 120 l of water to be obtained at 80 ° C every day. Each year, the village participates in the reforestation of the region and the extension of new irrigation methods to local populations. Ruches produce honey, fish pools are full of tilapia and chats, and a refrigerant truck takes in the nearby cities to sell them. Gardens are home to couronnées cranes, pelicans and gazelles. The aim is to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants, establish a model for rural development and combat rural exodus.