Hundreds screened at Burkina Clinics

More than 400 men, women and children in Ouagadougou were given basic medical and dental screenings in summer 2009 by a visiting Heal the World medical team. The screenings and follow-up treatments were administered during a series of daylong onsite clinics that were run at two HtW-supported schools and also at a church in Ouagadougou, the Burkina Faso capitol.

The original intent had been to offer screenings only and to focus primarily on students at HtW schools. After arriving in Burkina Faso the scope of the effort was increased due to demand and thanks to some unexpected cooperation from some very helpful local medical facilities and a pharmaceutical supply.

Screenings were given to number of non-student residents who came to the clinics with complaints, and a wide range of medical and dental conditions were treated, said Heather Bobbs, a dentist who co-led the team with her physician husband, Brian Bobb, of Dripping Springs, Texas.

"It was a God thing," Heather Bobb said. "We thought we were going to be doing some screenings but a lot of doors opened up when we got over there."
One of those doors was at a private medical clinic near one of the schools, which let the HtW team use its medical equipment and facilities. In addition, a government hospital in the city filled prescriptions from its pharmacy until the volume of the HtW requests for medicines became too large.

"Then we found a local pharmacy that helped us," Brian Bobb, the physician, said. "The guy came in on a Saturday night and opened up his store. He gave us a discount on everything we needed."

Those additional medicines enabled the team to provide prescriptions as part of follow-up treatments.
Toothbrushes, floss, and other dental supplies that had been brought from the United States quickly were exhausted.
"We pretty much worked until dark every day. We had to turn people away," Heather Bobb said.

Many of the diagnoses were of conditions like arthritis, heartburn and allergies that are seen throughout the world, Brian Bobb said. There also were broken bones that had healed badly, and a number of the children and others had symptoms of malaria, intestinal parasites and malnutrition that are more common to developing nations in the tropics such as Burkina.
There were not many tooth cavities, compared to what would have been seen in an American or European city, probably due to the relatively low amounts of sugar in the West African diet. But there was a significantly higher rate of gum diseases. "Just doing basic cleanings would make a big difference," Heather Bobb, the dentist, said.

Heather was surprised by the reaction some of the people had when she administered anesthetics. Many had never experienced anesthetics and were wary of them.

"I did some extractions but I scared some people the first day," Heather recalled. "The concept of being numb was new to them. They were amazed it didn't hurt but they were worried about long-term consequences."

The Education Challenge in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso currently has 5 trained doctors for every 100,000 people.  This figure reflects one of the greatest hurdles the country faces in its development: a lack of widespread tertiary education.  Without teachers, doctors, lawyers, and engineers, Burkinabe society is doomed to the meager subsistence level of poverty that has plagued its population for generations.  Heal the World believes the most promising and sustainable remedy to this problem is education.  Currently, only 8% of secondary school-aged Burkinabe children are enrolled in secondary school.  HtW hopes to put a greater percentage of this population on a track toward completing secondary and also continuing on to a tertiary, pre-professional education.

Heal the World proposes to build a University in Burkina Faso, “Université d’Afrique d’Ouest – The University of West Africa” with core courses starting in September of 2013, but more immediately, to begin with an English Language Institute in 2009.  This English Language Institute will serve secondary school-aged children, taught by HtW staff.  These students will study in the English Language Institute for 4 years before they are prepared to advance to the University that HtW will build.

HtW also currently supports a grade school in the suburbs of Ouagadougou.  This project is run in connection with a German NGO “What Else” and a local NGO “Woman, Children, People and Health.”  HtW funds and staff meet the children’s educational and nutritional needs.

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