Burkina Faso Projects

Primary Health Care reaching remote villages,
Deou Province

According to the UN, 530,000 women die in childbirth every year, more than half of these in remote villages of Sub-Saharan Africa. For the safety of mother and child, the World Health Organization has targeted the training of one midwife for every five kilometres radius worldwide.

Traditional Birth Attendants (known as AVs for Accoucheuse Villageoise in Burkina Faso) work in harsh desert conditions. They must travel long distances from village to village

In 2004, Dada Rudreshvarananda, who sadly passed away in 2006, founded AMURT in Burkina Faso, in coordination with the Department of Health and the Deou medical centre, and began work in the Deou district. These desert communities have no roads, electricity or telephone communications, no commercial economy, scarce access to safe water and health facilities, and, in the outlying areas, 90% illiteracy.

A traditional birth attendant being trained in resuscitation

A traditional birth attendant using a doll to practice different child birthing techniques

By training local women, like Fanta, as village midwives, we reach out to these isolated communities, where no trained help was previously available to women in childbirth. We also train local men as village health promoters. Saving lives through assisted childbirth.
 

Fanta, a traditional birth attendant trained by AMURT

In the Deou project area, two tribes, the Peuhl (Fulani) and the Bella have no tradition of assisted childbirth. Rather it is said that if a woman is strong, she should be able to give birth alone. This often has dire consequences for the mothers who are unable to expel the afterbirth completely, resulting in illness, and sometimes death.

The necessity of pre-natal counseling and assisted deliveries is slowly gaining acceptance amongst the tribal women, but there is still a long way to go.

Developing the skills of local midwives

A traditional birth attendant with a mother she has been visiting

AMURT's program at the Deou hospital offers training to traditional birth attendants (known as AVs for Accoucheuse Villageoise), women who already work with deliveries in their villages. Each AV receives a delivery kit and all the equipment needed to perform safe and hygienic deliveries.

Fanta, one of the traditional birth attendants AMURT trained, with her delivery kit

Click here to read a case study of Fanta, one of our midwives

There are now 29 trained AVs in the Deou province. The AVs work in isolation often with a day's transfer time to a medical facility.

Some of the trained traditional birth attendants after a training given by Suniiti, a visiting midwife from Engalnd, in 2006

One midwife, Marri, told us how she transferred a woman on a donkey and cart while she walked beside her the whole day, in temperatures in excess of forty degrees centigrade. This clearly demonstrates the commitment of these women to provide the best care they can in any situation. Local midwives working on the front line.

 
One of the trained village midwives (AV) in Boulekesi Soum visiting women in their village to advise them on childbirth

The AVs effectively fulfill the role of the health promoter for mothers and babies. They give advice on family planning, which is still not widely practised in the area, and teach women how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS.

In the remote communities, almost all the young girls have their genitals cut at the age of 12-14

They also use their position to raise awareness in this conservative society about other issues crucial to the welfare of women, such as female genital mutilation (FGM).

FGM is officially banned in Burkina Faso, however, in the remote northern villages, nearly all of the Moussi and Peuhl girls have their genitals cut at the age of 12 or 13.