|
USAID Monthly Update, July 2007
USAID partner GOAL has been working in Kutum, North Darfur, since February 2004, and now operates eight health facilities that serve 150,000 people. While the lack of access and general security concerns that afflict all of Darfur have challenged GOAL's ability to maintiain its health services, the organisations has been actively pursuing different methods of reaching the people who most need their assistance.
Community Participation
As part of USAID's efforts to improve maternal and child health, GOAL provides clean delivery kits to pregnant women in their third trimester. These simple kits - which include plastic sheeting, a clean razor blade for the umbilical cord, and plastic gloves - can have a particularly large impact in an environment where most women give birth at home.
Earlier this year, supply problems created a shortage in available kits. But rather than have expectant mothers do without, GOAL mobilized the communities to make them. More than 300 women at the women's center in Kassab Camp were able to put together almost 1,000 kits in just one week. This initiative not only helped GOAL overcome a gap in supply, but it also got local women involved in, and informed about, improving health in their communities.
Innovative Programming
Because of the increased threat of carjackings and other attacks, GOAL could no longer feasibly continue to operate weekly mobile clinics in the rural areas of Abdul Shakour and El Dor. However, the need for services remained. Members of GOAL's staff discussed the problem with residents of the areas, who identified community members who could be trained to provide basic health services. Those identified then came to Kutum, where they received intensive training in management of issues such as the treatment of diarrheal diseases and malaria. They also were trained in outbreak awareness, which resulted in the reporting of a suspected case of meningitis shortly thereafter.
The basic health units run by the community workers have been operating successfully for several months, and are resupplied by GOAL on a monthly basis. Refresher trainings and discussion are conducted periodically when the staff visit Kutum. As access continues to be a problem throughout most of Darfur, GOAL is now examining whether this approach can be used to provide health services to other communities in need. |
