By Dr Hippolyte Traoré, MD, PhD, Public Health Researcher, National Institute of Public Health, Ministry of Health and Social Development, Bamako, Mali

AIDMI sparked a great interest in me to read and explore each new post on Southasiadisasters.net. My teammates and I are grateful to you for the published article “Heatwave in Mali: impact on elderly mortality in Bamako from 2013 to 2016. Before publishing, I actively participated in this panel as a speaking host. Then I presented the summary of our teamwork outcomes. It was a great moment for me to share the Malian experience with other researchers and scientists. After the panel, I shared the published article with my teammates at our National Institute of Public Health (NIPH-Bamako/ Mali).

I participated in many AIDMI’s virtual conferences, especially the virtual roundtable on celebrating 150 years of IMD: frontiers for early warning. Its accuracy and forecast have improved accessibility to early warning information, and the ability to communicate weather-related actions has been significantly enhanced by IMD. I mention that Dr Mohapatra has mostly advanced early warning systems to serve not just India but the entire South Asian region and other countries. That’s wise, he recently earned a very prestigious United Nations Sasakawa Award for 2025 for disaster risk reduction. He continues to inspire many researchers, politicians, scientists and countries around the world.

AIDMI provides me with a great opportunity to understand the importance of Southasiadisasters.net: how it disseminates knowledge acquired from panels, collects data, analyses climate changes, and how to mitigate disasters and empower community resilience.

I highly appreciate the posts of Southasiadisasters.net. I enhanced my English skills in virtual meetings with panel members and am excited to gain more knowledge and experience with them.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this piece are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of AIDMI.