For six weeks, the container went dark. The last we heard from it, back in early June, was a cluster of pings around Brooklyn's Red Hook Container Terminal before it sailed. That silence is normal — the trackers are Apple AirTags, and out on the open ocean there are no nearby iPhones to relay their location. So we waited.
On the afternoon of July 17, the map lit up again — this time on the other side of the Atlantic.
Two trackers, one port
Two of the four trackers surfaced in the Port of Dakar, Senegal. MACONA-TT-1 pinged at 13:34 along Avenue Félix Eboué inside the port district. Fifteen minutes later, at 13:49, MACONA-TT4 appeared near the container terminal by Rue HB-17. Two independent trackers, minutes apart, in the same working port — exactly the signature we hope to see when a shipment makes landfall.
Dakar is one of West Africa's busiest deep-water ports and a common gateway for cargo bound inland. Seeing our bags here is the confirmation we have been waiting on all summer: the donations have reached West Africa.
What the other two trackers tell us
MACONA-TT2 and MACONA-TT3 have not pinged yet. That does not mean anything is wrong — it is the same AirTag behavior that kept the whole shipment quiet at sea. Trackers only report when an iPhone is close enough to relay them, so as the bags move through crowded port and city areas we expect the quiet ones to resurface. We will update the live tracker the moment they do.
Where it goes next
Dakar is an offload point, not the destination. From here the shipment travels overland toward Bamako, Mali, where MACONA distributes the contents — clothing, hygiene products, and over-the-counter medicine — directly to families. This is the stretch of the journey where your donation turns into food on a table, a school uniform, or a hygiene kit that keeps a girl in class.
You can watch the shipment move in real time on our live tracker, photographed and timestamped at every stage.
Your Gift at Work
Stay in the loop
One short update when MACONA has news to share — not for noise.
Double Your Impact
If your employer offers matching gifts, search for MIMI AFRICAN CHARITIES (EIN 93-3813688) in Benevity. Corporate matches have funded hydration hubs, school supplies, and full distribution days.