Health and access to care for Mali's children: first encouraging report

Every day, 15,000 children under the age of five die mainly from causes that could have been prevented by UNICEF. In Mali, the majority of under-five deaths are linked to benign infectious diseases: pneumonia, malaria and diarrheal diseases.

To remedy this ultimately avoidable problem,
to fight against infant mortality in Mali,
AMADE, in partnership with Santé Sud, launched a major project on Commune 3 in Bamako, guaranteeing families access to care from the first symptoms in children under 5 years to avoid dramas . The objective is to better inform parents about the procedures to be followed in case of diseases of their children and to provide these parents with services to prevent the spread of benign infectious diseases.

The first stages of the project, which involved installing and training the Santé Sud team and carrying out the preparatory work with the implementing partners, were successfully completed.

Concerning the activities carried out in the field, the first results obtained are very encouraging:

- The knowledge and use of Essential Family Practices (PFE) is improved for at least 80% of the 5000 mothers benefiting from health education actions,
- The vaccination rate among the children being followed is higher than the average (in 2017, only six out of ten children in Mali were fully vaccinated),
- Preventive health monitoring of children monitored is reinforced for rapid detection of diseases,
- The rate of use of primary curative care among the 3,500 beneficiaries of AMV + (voluntary health insurance) or RAMED + (medical assistance scheme) is higher than the average in the intervention area.

AMV + registration and parents' awareness of the importance of the health of their children under 5 are two of the highlights of the project.

There is still work to be done to achieve the objectives set and progress to be made including the registration of families in destitute RAMED +.

The project on "comprehensive health coverage for the whole family in Commune 3 of Bamako: from prevention to recovery", is on the right track and will be continued throughout 2019 with new objectives to be achieved.

 

Moukaissa, an AMV + mother, testifies:

"My name is Moukaissa SIDIBE and I was a beneficiary of the classical service of Djantoli. As a result, when the AMS named Astan SAKILIBA came to offer us the AMV + offer, I did not think twice to join because it already had my confidence! Indeed, his regular visits allowed me to follow closely the evolution of the weight of my child who had been diagnosed malnourished, and today he is in top form. The advantage of the new AMV + offer is that you are treated cheaply. In contrast, the AMV + does not take all the drugs, it is hoped that their offer will be improved in this direction. "

Photo © Santé Sud