In Senegal UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake visited the Sampathé Health Centre. He witnessed the daily efforts of community health workers to deliver medical care.
The Sampathé centre provides free or low-cost integrated health services for nearly 16,000 area inhabitants, and health care workers from the outpost regularly go door to door educating their neighbours about disease prevention.
Outreach is vital
While Mr. Lake was in Senegal for a global conference on girl’s education and gender equality in Dakar earlier this week, he also had the chance to visit rural health centres that are beyond the reach of urban services. Health-care disparities between urban and rural areas in Senegal remain high.
“It confirmed for me that we can’t wait for health systems to work their way out from the centre,” said Mr. Lake. “We have to be working in the communities as well. There are strong communities. They just need the services to deliver vaccines.”
Outreach efforts are especially vital to stop the spread of polio. Seventeen reported cases of the disease in this West African country have sparked a nation-wide campaign that aims to vaccinate the 2.2 million Senegalese children under the age of five.
West Africa also suffers the highest child mortality rates in the world. To address this issue at the community level in Senegal, community health workers are delivering a packet of services designed to meet the most pressing child-health needs. As part of this effort, UNICEF supports local health workers who teach mothers about proper nutrition, and who weigh children on a regular basis to monitor their growth.
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