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My Visit to Senegal and Mali
With envelopes arriving in droves at UNFPA, I was
asked if I would like to visit countries where UNFPA
works in partnership with governments to bring reproductive
health care to their people. Being a retired French
teacher, I asked to go to Senegal, UNFPA added Mali,
two very poor countries where there is a high birth
rate, and high maternal and infant mortality.
I began my trip in Senegal. Eight hours by car east
of Dakar I visited the Goudiry district where a UNFPA
sponsored health clinic had changed the life of the
surrounding area. The maternal death rate has fallen
appreciably because there is a doctor who performs
Caesareans, an anaesthetist and several midwives. I
spoke to two women whose lives had been saved and to
another who, although anaemic, had just given birth.
The clinic was going to counsel the couple about delaying
any subsequent pregnancy. On a wall was a sign “Bébé,
avec les seins, tu seras sain”. It rhymes in
French and means, “Baby, with the breast (feeding)
you will be healthy”.
In both Senegal and Mali there is a very active effort
sponsored by UNFPA to train community based health
workers. After completing training, these people live
in their remote villages and are the backbone of the
health care system. They help with births, contraception,
and education. I visited the “two-hours-by-dirt-road” Mali
village of Nyamana where one male community-based health
worker had microcredit to open a little store and a
female had microcredit to raise goats for sale. The
entire village came together to talk to us about how
life had improved, fewer women were dying, babies were
born healthier. One woman shared that she was using
natural family planning, and one woman shared that
she was using the pill.
I will never forget the visit in Senegal to an elementary
school funded by UNFPA and the government, where children
held up signs welcoming Jane Roberts and her 34 Million
Friends. The children put on a skit about how very
early marriage is bad and how adolescents shouldn’t “hang
out” but go home.
In a destitute neighbourhood of the Mali capital of
Bamako, I met with a group of women who, wanting a
health clinic in their neighbourhood, had started a
garbage collection business, made a little money and
approached UNFPA and the government of Mali to see
what could be done. The result is a reproductive health
clinic where women in the neighbourhood come for prenatal
care, give birth, get their children vaccinated, and
avail themselves of family planning. What an example
of women taking care of their community!
Also in Bamako I visited a youth centre partially
funded by UNFPA where sports and a cyber café exist
side by side with an adolescent health clinic where
one can get confidential advice, contraceptives, and
treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. Everywhere
I went there was massive public education against HIV/AIDS
and also against female genital mutilation. In Mali
up to ninety percent of girls are circumcised. With
education (by both the government and UNFPA) about
the harm that can ensue, this is slowly changing.
One last thing. On the dirt road to Nymana, our convoy
came upon a young wife in labour, lying on a donkey
cart trying to get to the UNFPA clinic 6 miles away
in the 95 degree noon day heat. That is the reality
of Mali. The doctor with us loaded her on to his truck
and drove her to the clinic. That one incident was
the absolute highlight of the trip. The fact that we
were there might have saved her life.
There is no more humanitarian work than that done
by UNFPA. The governments of both Senegal and Mali
showed their deep appreciation for the role UNFPA plays
in their countries by sending government officials
with us on our trips into the countryside, by taking
part in the press conferences called about 34 Million
Friends, and by giving my trip wide coverage on television.
Through the media, I shared with the Senegalese and
Mali people that although our government was not participating
this year in the work of UNFPA, the American people
were. That is very important for Lois and me. The American
people are reaching out to the world.
-- Jane Roberts
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