Burkina Faso is located in the African Sahel, the country’ s economy relies on agriculture, mostly subsistence which takes about 80% of the workforce contributing to 40% of national GDP.
72% of its 15.2 milion habitants live below the poverty line; schooling is reduced and health facilities are lacking. Many people, especially children and adults, die from lack of health, malaria, measles, tubercolosis, tetanus, AIDS and malnutrition.
The CMSC of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s main maternity with more than 5.000 shares for year, is the only group that cares for premature babies and disease in the area that goes beyond the borders of Burkina Faso affecting patients also coming from Mali, Mauritania and Sierra Leone.
Project purpose is to adapt the standard treatment for premature babies and disease at the Centre St Camille of Ouagadougou, the most modern care protocol in a situation with very limited technological resources.
The method of intervention was to train a staff of 19 people and 4 auxiliary nurses working in a department where O2 is the only resource available and using the annual statistical data wich are measured EG, weight, inborn, outborn, diagnosis, survival and mortality to see the benefit of our impact.
The 11 missions so far carried out from 2005 to 2010 (8 phisycians and 3 nurses) under the ESTHER project, which has as main actors Medicus Mundi, University of Brescia, Spedali Civili’s Hospital in Brescia, the USL of Parma and the Camillian’s delegation of Burkina Faso made it possible to improve welfare standards by lowerig the mortality between 1000 and 1500 grams from 76.8% to 63.9%.
The project includes new missions such as medical and nursing prospective to make more appropriate treatment standards for improving survival rates, trying to meet the costs of a sustainable health care in this reality.
“Certainly what remains in this experience is a strong link with friends and burkinabe’s missionaries who works at CMSC and therefore not a static relationship with health issues in Africa, but a gratifying human relationship and a common sight on small patients must be the same anywhere in the world we find ourself ” (Paolo Villani, neonatology, Fidenza,Parma)
