Augustine brought her malnourished three-month-old son, Passi, to the Pama Clinic. She had walked for several hours to reach the clinic, only to find that their supply of life-saving therapeutic food had run out long ago.
We will be working in two areas of the Central African Republic, Bossembélé and Yaloke. The health services in these areas are severely understaffed, with only three trained doctors, 16 qualified nurses and three trained midwives for almost 105,661 people.
Of the 22 health facilities in the area, only 12 are fully functional due to support from charities and non-governmental organisations, who provide 75% of health services in the country. The remaining 10 are often out of stock of essential medicines, or the special therapeutic food used to treat malnourished children, and do not have the necessary staff or equipment.
We will be:
- Training staff
- Providing medicines
- Improving the infrastructure of health centres. This may include repairing damage, restoring delivery rooms and water points and providing proper spaces for consulting and treatment that allow patients privacy
- Treating malnutrition
We will also spread health and hygiene messages throughout communities by working with community volunteers, as well as traditional birth assistants and traditional healers. Traditional birth assistants and healers are still widely used in communities than qualified health professionals, particularly when access to health centres and medicine is limited. However, sadly this can often mean that people don’t get the healthcare they need.