Save the Children

Now for a little more information about the organization I am now working for. Save the Children Canada (SCC) is an international humanitarian NGO who works to protect children’s rights throughout the world. SCC has been present in West Africa for more than 20 years, now with a regional office in Ouaga. In Burkina, alongside the Ministry to Health, SCC works to teach about HIV/AIDS and against malnutrition. After an evaluation, the Centre-Nord region of Burkina Faso was chosen as SCC’s site to fight malnutrition. The regional capital of the Centre-Nord is Kaya. The Health District of Kaya covers 7 communes and 334 villages. Within these villages, there are 52 CSPSs (Medical Clinics), one CREN (Centre for Malnutrition), and the regional hospital. SSC works in all of these locations to help eliminate malnutrition in the district of Kaya. The goal is to have a durable and permanent reduction of malnutrition.

Now, malnutrition is what exactly? According to unicef, malnutrition “is a broad term commonly used as an alternative to undernutrition but technically it also refers to overnutrition. People are malnourished if their diet does not provide adequate calories and protein for growth and maintenance or they are unable to fully utilize the food they eat due to illness (undernutrition). They are also malnourished if they consume too many calories (overnutrition).” In this situation we are talking about undernutrition. I would love to see fat babies everywhere.

It is estimated that 20 million children suffer from severe acute malnutrition and directly contributes to 1 million deaths per year. Since 2005, health workers have been using the community care method to treat acute malnutrition. This method has been recognized by the World Health Organization as the best approach to treat malnutrition. This approach has 3 essential components: community mobilization, outpatient care, for children without complications, and hospitalization for children with complications. Generally children 6-59 months are admitted into this program.

So what does this mean for me exactly? This means that every morning a team of Save the Children workers (generally 2-3 people) goes out to one of the 52 villages in the Kaya district. When we arrive at the village, we head to the CSPS to find a long line of women waiting for us (if word has gotten out that we’re coming that day). Then we set to work determining if each child is malnourished. We look at the age, sex, weight, height, and MUAC. Based on the child’s measurements, we decide if the child is malnourished. And if so, is he/she moderately or severely malnourished? If the child is malnourished, we give them vitamin A, amoxicillin, folic acid, along with plumpy nut (a nutritional supplement given out by UNICEF). We enter them in our program and monitor them over several months, with the hope that everyone gets better!

SCC has recently started a new initiative where all the children 0 to 5 years in the Kaya district, along with pregnant or nursing mothers, are given free medical treatment. Programs like these can take place due to community participation alongside the regional health office. I’m looking forward to seeing this be put into action.

In other news, I leave for Mt. Kilimanjaro in a few days. I’m still doing my Close of Service trip that I’d planned on doing for almost a year with three of my good friends here in country. So we will be climbing Kili and doing a three day safari. Then I return to Burkina where ten days later, Camp G2LOW starts. It’s going to be a whirlwind until September, but I am looking forward to everything (although of course I am also looking forward to relaxing and only having work to think about in Sept). Yay!