Hawa : Mali’s hero

In Mali, long distances between remote villages and health centres means that very often malnourished children aren’t receiving treatment at all, or, are only brought to the centres when their condition has become critical.

Action Against Hunger are changing this, with an innovative and life-saving approach involving community health workers. Action Against Hunger train community health workers to diagnose and treat malnourished children within the villages that they live. This means that malnutrition is spotted sooner and parents don’t have to walk up to 40km to the nearest clinic every week for treatment.

30 year old Hawa Coulibaly is an Action Against Hunger trained community health worker, living and working in the remote village of Kourougue in rural Mali. Hawa lives in the village with her 3 children and from their home, she operates a clinic from which she diagnoses and treats malnourished children.

Recently, Hawa was walking through her village when she noticed 2-year-old Simbo was underweight and lethargic. Spotting the signs, she asked Simbo’s mother to bring him to her clinic. She diagnosed Simbo with Severe Acute Malnutrition, using a mid-upper arm circumference tape (MUAC) and prescribed him a course of ready to use therapeutic food for 4 weeks. With Hawa’s support, Simbo’s Mum was able to treat Simbo at her home.

Similarly, 2 year-old Fatumata’s condition was recently spotted, diagnosed and treated by Hawa, without the need for the little girl to travel the long distance to their nearest health centre. This is in stark contrast to Fatumata’s eldest brother Musa, who almost died from Severe Acute Malnutrition before Hawa came to Kourougue village. With no knowledge of what to do, as her son grew weaker, their mother Many, used traditional medicine and bathed him in a mixture of water, leaves and bark from the local tereninfu tree. With her son’s condition worsening, Many eventually borrowed money to get a motorbike taxi to an Action Against Hunger funded in-patient facility in Kita. This was both expensive and time consuming for the family, but also could have been prevented with the right support. “Before Hawa, we were living in darkness”, says Many, “since she has come here, children are healthier and mothers are happier.”