Volontaire de Sante

Life as a health volunteer is going to be a completely different Peace Corps experience. My first year (June 06- May 07) as a teacher was great and I would never want to give that up, I learned a lot about teaching, discipline and public education in a developing nation, but this next year will bring forth completely new set of problems. As a teacher I was aware of the health problems in Burkina, but never really saw them. Students would mention that they had Palu (Malaria) last week and couldn't make class, or that their little brother was sick with something. It was always like that, but I never really saw the diseases. Even when someone passed away, they never could explain why. They would just say he was sick. We would talk about HIV/AIDS but never really knew who was tested etc. The past month in my new village has been the complete opposite.



The first couple of weeks back in Burkina were spent doing small training sessions learning about the "Health Sector" of the Peace Corps. Since I went through an extensive training period in 2006 to become a teacher, I didn't need to go over the language and cultural components, so this training was specific on ways Peace Corps Volunteers can work with the government village clinics (Centre de Sante et Promotion Sociale = CSPS) to inform rural populations and improve the general health of the community. The CSPS's are small clinics that combat disease and provide a maternity where mother's can give birth in a clinic setting rather than at home. They work at the community level to inform the villagers about disease, hygiene, and proper nutrition. Most of the CSPS disease treatment is simple when thought of from western standards, but the when you are living in these rudimentary rural conditions, proper understanding of the sanitation and endemic diseases is the most efficient way to save lives. The CSPS staff normally includes a couple of nurses, a trained midwife and a pharmacists that runs a small set of government controlled generic medications. The CSPS system is the front line in terms of medical service and they are placed all over the country in some of the smallest most rural areas. This is the case with my new village Bouende, its small, real small, and very remote. Not remote in terms of location from Bobo the regional capital, just remote in terms of commodities. Maybe rustic is a better choice of words. Last year I taught at a middle school, they don't have one here in Bouende, which has a population of around 1200. There are about 2500 people in total who come from the surrounding villages to our CSPS. My old village of Balla had a population of about 5000, and had cold beer and a decent restaurant. Neither are in Bouende, so it feels a bit different.



The past month in Bouende I have seen first hand the health care problems of Burkina Faso, some of which are extremely emoitional. I met this one family while conducting a general door to door informational health study that informed me that they thought one of their children was a bit small for his age. The mother brought him over and he seemed to be in pretty bad shape. After a series of questions with a friend translating from French to Sambla, I found out he was 3 years old, can't walk, about 16 lbs, has chronic diariah and sometimes bloody, has a fever, doesn't eat well, and his mother has stopped producing milk. They don't sleep under a mosquito net, like almost all Burkinabe and probably has a severe case of malaria. It is easy to see that he was severely malnourished and behind in neurological development and will probably die soon. Holding back tears I asked her why she never went to the CSPS, she simply said that she didn't have the money. It is really tough to see some of these things. On an up note, the next day I got a group of women together, all of whom had malnourished children that I had discovered the day before, we discussed proper weaning techniques and hygiene. Then I showed them how to make an enriched porridge from local sustainable resources that are cheap and will improve their childrens nutrition and hope to fatten up the little tykes, and give them some energy to keep on fighting to survive. It was a great example of the importance of a health volunteers' work. These mothers with small children are reluctant to come to the clinic for a number of reasons; money, stigma of having a small child, traditional beliefs, or maybe they don't even know it's a problem. The CSPS is great resource and they could be treated there, but often the villagers feel distant from it and don't understand its purpose and think it is too expensive. My job is to promote western treatment and improve communication from the clinic to the local community. Living at the village level and working directly with the community to recognize and understand the problems in the village, and working together to solve these problems is what I will be doing for the next year or so... and I am excited about the new challenge.