One of the initiators of the project was Ibrahim Diallo, director of the Bamako-based journalism school "IGLAM" and the founder the "Le Zenith" newspaper. He told RAP 21 how the project got started: "Most of the time the African continent is being torn apart by armed conflicts and other crises. We thought it would be interesting to approach each other instead, to reach out to our neighbour, to discover him in order to understand him. We wanted to create a dialogue in the name of peace, friendship and the integration of the African peoples. The choice of Burkina Faso was a coincidence: Flix Kambir, one of the communication councillors of the mayor of Ouagadougou, was studying journalism at our school at that time. He proposed his country for this trip and worked a lot for the success of the project."

Once the preparations had been made, sixty journalists and journalism students left for Burkina Faso for a stay of ten days. Altogether thirty media outlets participated in the trip which had two main goals: to create contacts between journalists from the two countries with the aim of establishing an exemplary media collaboration in West Africa, and to allow for the students to strengthen their competence through making comprehensive features about Burkina Faso.

"A journalism student who is only beginning his journalistic career has great difficulties to explore unknown territories, to cross borders. The simple fact of going to Burkina was a first victory for the students. On a practical level, the students both wrote articles and produced radio and TV programmes. They sent twenty articles over the internet from Burkina to Mali during the trip and kept a travel log," said Mr Diallo.

On the program in Burkina Faso were visits to the journalism and communication schools, the radio stations of Ouagadogou, the Norbert Zongo centre and different journalism associations. As a result of the trip, more than 400 articles have been published in the Mali media, and a special magazine about it will soon be published. Two other projects were also initiated.

"The first one is the ’RJPAP’, the Network of Journalists for Friendship among Peoples. The second one is a material and news exchange between Mali and Burkina Faso, which now happens on a daily basis. This very morning I said goodbye to two journalists from Burkina who spent four days here in Mali. Last week we made an interview with the mayor of Ouagadougou. Tomorrow I will drive a group of journalists to participate in a diplomatic event between the two countries. In June I am leaving for Ouagadougou with five journalists to refine the special magazine about the trip that will be printed in 5,000 copies. And all the media practitioners who went on the trip now have their address books filled with new contacts."

And it does not stop there. "When we got back from Burkina we filed a similar project application at the embassy of Senegal on the initiative of the Senegalese teachers and students at our journalism school. We are also thinking of other countries to cooperate with, like the Ivory Coast, which is particularly interesting now that the peace process has started and there is a lot of goodwill in the country."

For Mr Diallo the biggest success of this first Mali media trip to Burkina Faso was that it "broke taboos, helped people overcome their fear of each other, it eliminated xenophobia and brought people closer to each other."