UNICEF: Community-based health centers in Senegal

This year, UNICEFs flagship report, The State of the Worlds Children to be launched on 15 January addresses the need to close one of the greatest health divides between industrialized and developing countries: maternal mortality. Here is one in a series of related stories.

By Thomas Nybo

KOLDA, Senegal, 13 January 2009 Daddo Sabaly’s first four children all died before their first birthday, from either disease or malnutrition. Ms. Sabaly lives in the Kolda region of Senegal, which historically has had one of the country’s highest rates of infant mortality. Her fifth child, a boy named Abdoulaye, is now five. Her sixth is a healthy nine-month-old girl.

Ms. Sabaly credits a community health centre for her children’s survival, as well as a community nutrition programme that identifies local food resources such as squash, eggs and milk. Before this programme, feeding children these products was considered taboo.

“At first, Abdoulaye was suffering from malnutrition,” she says. “But we went to the community centre, where I learned to properly feed him and he got better.”

To read the full story, visit: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/s…