Bénin

cacha bulletinBÉNIN

 CACHA has developed a strong bond with Bénin since our exploratory visit in 2002. Through close collaboration with our sister NGO, the Canada-Benin Community Health Alliance, we have created a long-lasting and cooperative relationship with two isolated rural communities—Aklampa and Anoum—chosen for their lack of access to primary health care.

Aklampa is an isolated community located in hilly central Benin. Anoum is in northern Benin near Djougou. CACHA medical teams have visited these two communities in 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and twice in 2009. CACHA is now planning its 8th medical mission to Benin, November 4-19th, 2010.

Since 2002, CACHA has brought in $1,300,000 worth of donated medical and hospital material to various facilities in the country.

Typically during a medical mission, a group of African and Canadian health professionals, logisticians and medical students treat around 3500 patients over eight days of clinics. The scope of our interventions also includes surgeries, dental care and ophthalmology (eye care). Thanks to our many donors, the team often writes 14,000 prescriptions totalling over $110,000. Many schools are also visited to discuss topics such as HIV and safe sex.

In Aklampa, CACHA is striving to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children in the following ways:
 

  • Providing of basic necessities such as food, clothing, medical care;

  • Ensuring that orphans and vulnerable children receive education through provision of school fees, school uniforms and school lunches;

  • Meeting the social and emotional needs of the children through recreational activities and psychosocial support;

  • Utilizing tracking systems to ensure monitoring of support, periodic home visits, transparency and appropriate distribution of resources among children according to their different levels of need;

  • There are over 300 orphans and vulnerable children living in Aklampa and surrounding areas, children living with grandparents, extended family or in child headed households with no adult care.

Also in Aklampa, our partnership with the Better Africa Foundation gives us access to an unused hospital where we can perform more extensive procedures. And, in partnership with the sanitary zone hospital of Dassa, our volunteer Canadian, and Gabonese surgeons perform free surgeries on Aklampa patients in cooperation with the local surgeon. The Dassa hospital desperately needs our support to improve its medical equipment.

In Anoum, we helped the villagers build and equip a dispensary. Since July 2006, CACHA has supported a local state nurse or physician to staff it and to assess the health needs of the community. We hope to help build a wing for surgeries and childbirth in the future.