I made the decision to undertake a journey that has thus far brought me from Bamako to Douentza. My purpose was to observe first-hand the impact of the past two years of disturbance on the ordinary people. This seemed like a great idea while I was sitting in Canada with a café au lait and reading the daily paper.

As a city-dwelling lifestyle journalist, I tend to write about high-end spa treatments and the like. So when my editor at Chatelaine asked if I knew anyone who would travel to Mali in West Africa to write about the food crisis there, I was as surprised as she was to hear the words "I'll go." My time there changed the way I think about charitable giving. Mali is plagued with misfortune and desperately needs our help.