The Plastik Project Revolutionizing Medical Waste Management in Burkina Faso
The waste of two essential items in the healthcare and nutritional response in sub-Saharan Africa poses significant environmental pollution. How can their impact be minimized? Addressing this issue is the central mission of the PLASTIK project, led by ALIMA teams in Burkina Faso and Chad since April 2022. Dr. Céline Estelle Beogo, project coordinator in Burkina Faso, provides insights into their efforts
My adventure at ALIMA
I joined the ALIMA team in January 2024. A month and a half later, I was lucky enough to go on a mission to Mali and then to Burkina Faso. Despite my fatigue, and spurred by my passion for storytelling, I continued my journey across the Senegal River into Mauritania. In just a few weeks, I was able to get to the heart of our work. Instead of just key figures on paper, I saw people. Beyond funding, I found the real support that my colleagues provide. And in place of logical frameworks, I saw landscapes, villages, and towns.
Burkina Faso: Train health workers to better respond to humanitarian disasters
In Burkina Faso, the health system is under severe strain as a result of the volatile security situation. In the Center-North region, three-quarters of health facilities are closed due to insecurity. ALIMA and its local partners, KEOOGO and SOS Médecins Burkina Faso, have trained local health workers to better prepare for the influx of patients into the few health centers still operating, which are often overwhelmed by unexpected and even recurring disasters.
Nutritional health and mental health: the 1,000 days project in Burkina Faso
In Burkina Faso, as the security and humanitarian situation gets worse, ALIMA (The Alliance for International Medical Action) supports mother-child pairs during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, as part of the government’s Social Safety Nets project, aimed at fighting poverty in several regions of the country.
Burkina Faso: Almost 2 million people displaced
Nearly one in 10 people in Burkina Faso have been displaced by conflict. Most worryingly, the rate of severe food insecurity has nearly doubled compared to last year, with over 600,000 people in emergency hunger levels during this lean season, warn 28 international aid organisations operating in the country. An urgent increase in funding for humanitarian assistance is required to respond to the current situation.
Rebuilding the lives of internally displaced persons in Burkina Faso
Interview with Dodo Ilunga Diemu, Mental Health Coordinator at ALIMA specializing in psychosocial support for civilian populations affected by violence in Burkina Faso.
Burkina Faso: Facilitating access to care for the elderly
The listening, leisure and care center within Burkina Faso’s National Center for the Elderly (CNPA) is a unique space. Located in the health district of Bogodogo in the capital city, Ouagadougou, it is one of the few facilities in the country that offers activities for the elderly.
Burkina Faso: Interview with Dr. Kolle, a surgeon in Kaya
Recognized for its actions in the fight against malnutrition and disease outbreaks, and for its medical research, ALIMA (The Alliance for International Medical Action) also carries out surgical projects. Haiti in 2010, just after the earthquake; Mali; Niger; Central African Republic; and most recently: Burkina Faso. ALIMA opened two such projects in the “Land of Upright Men,” in 2020: one in Kaya – 100km northeast of Ouagadougou, the capital, and the other in Barsalogho – 50km north of Kaya.
ALIMA spoke with Dr. Lamine Kolle, surgeon for ALIMA in Kaya, to learn more.
Mapping malnutrition treatment coverage with mobile technology
It’s just a few minutes past 6am, but already more than two-dozen community health agents from the ALIMA/SOS Médecins/Keoogo consortium have gathered in the courtyard of ALIMA’s office in Burkina Faso’s Yako Health District. Just as the sun comes up, and after finishing a warm glass of tea on a chilly morning, they get onto their motorbikes and set out in teams of two or three for their different destinations of the day.
Their goal: go from house-to-house in more than 30 villages to survey families, using mobile tablets, about their use of the MUAC tape and to determine the proportion of children under five who are suffering from malnutrition in the area that have and have not received care.
Burkina Faso: Teaching mothers to detect malnutrition
When ALIMA and its partners, Keoogo and SOS Médecins BF, came to Zalissa’s village in central Burkina Faso, the 37-year-old mother of four, who also cares for her 20-month-old niece, had only a vague understanding of what malnutrition is. She had no idea how to tell if her kids were properly nourished or not.
