Bringing the communities closer to the hospitals, improving the quality of health care.
By Parfait Kouassi BOUAKÉ, Côte d’Ivoire, May 2007 – Access to basic healthcare has become possible in several villages around Bouna, a town in the North of Côte d’Ivoire, following the rehabilitation and equipment by UNICEF of the health centres destroyed during the war. Today, UNICEF is trying to win the double challenge of quality of care and increase in hospital attendance in this region of Côte d’Ivoire. Hien Eugénie, aged 32, anxiously presented her six-month old daughter to the nurse. This distraught mother has walked for one hour from Woulidouo village to the dispensary at Niandegué, a village situated 12km East of Bouna. The rehabilitation of the Niandegué dispensary by UNICEF has once again brought together the 7700 inhabitants of this village and the neighbouring localities of this dispensary. It is the only dressing station in the neighbourhood and the war that broke out in September 2002 had destroyed it, driving away at the same time, the civil servants who were working there. In sum, it was registered in the Centre, North and West of the country (CNW Zone), the departure of nearly 80% of the health personnel, the closure and destruction of nearly 60% of the 575 health centres. As soon as the minimum security conditions were ensured, UNICEF, with funding from the European Union, gradually put in place, activities that led to the re-opening in the CNW zones (ex besieged zones) of 89% of centres and maternity homes that were functioning before the war. In 2007, therefore, at least 511 health centres were rehabilitated, thus offering the populations access to healthcare. “Before the reopening of this dispensary, many children lost their lives in these villages”, explains Eugénie, looking questionably at the nurse who was examining the little girl. Thanks to anti-malaria, antibiotics and antipyretics supplied by UNICEF, this State registered nurse has become, with his auxiliary nurse, the man they need, the saviour of lives in the village. At 30 km North of Bouna, in the village of Bouko, the impact of the work of the CHWs is visible. Ouattara Djata, a housewife, aged 27, expresses delight at the experience she made out of it. After their training, the three CHWs from Bouko worked in different areas of the village, each supervising the households in his/her sector. ”A CHW should be available and rigorous; since ignorance and negligence are the causes of many diseases in the villages”, she indicates, before mounting the bicycle, which UNICEF offered her to go and visit other households.
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