Caring, Innovating, Together in 2016

By ALIMA

2016 was marked by a series of humanitarian crises, as well as chronic medical emergencies. From protecting children against malaria to teaching mothers to screen their kids for malnutrition to caring for pregnant women and assisting those displaced by conflict-related violence in the Lake Chad region, ALIMA and its partners was on the frontlines in nine countries throughout West and Central Africa. We responded to outbreaks, such as Ebola in Guinea, Rift Valley Fever in Niger and Dengue fever in Burkina Faso, as well as participated in innovative research projects related to malnutrition and Ebola.

To highlight our work this year, ALIMA partnered with photojournalists to share the lives of some of the region’s most vulnerable people. The following pictures reflect the needs of local populations and the unique collaboration with local partners in Africa.

NIGERIA

More than 7,000 malnourished children were admitted to ALIMA's nutrition programs in Nigeria since July 2016. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 14 percent of children under the age of five are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition throughout the country. The majority of cases are among those displaced by conflict-related violence.

CAMEROON

Issiaka Aminou, a nurse from the Intensive Nutritional Center at the Mokolo district hospital in the Far East region, supervises consultations. Since May 2016, ALIMA has provided nutritional and pediatric care in the hospital for more than 2,100 children under the age of five. More than 200,000 people are now displaced in Mokolo due to conflict-related violence. The majority lack access to clean water and food.

BURKINA FASO

Yacouba Sandwidi is treated for a case of severe dengue in the Infectious Diseases Unit at the Yalgado Ouedraogo University Hospital, in Ouagadougou. More than 2,400 cases were reported throughout the country between August and December 2016. Patients who developed severe dengue were given free care at three health centers, including Yalgado, thanks to ALIMA and its partners SOS Médecins BF and KEOOGO.

©Sophie Garcia / ALIMA

MALI

Mothers do laundry outside Dioila Hospital, in southern Mali. The hospital provides pediatric care for malnourished children. In 2016, ALIMA trained 200 doctors and nurses to care for severely malnourished kids.

Children from the Diarra family in Guihoyo, a village in Mali’s Koulikoro region, benefited from a Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) campaign in 2016. They were among more than 84,000 children in the region who received antimalarial drugs from ALIMA and its partner AMCP, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. SMC has been shown to protect up to 75 percent of children under the age of five against uncomplicated and severe malaria.

Doctors try to save the life of three-year-old Oumar Mariko, who was diagnosed with severe malaria. Despite the best efforts of the medical team at the ALIMA-AMCP Intensive Nutritional Unit in Dioila Hospital, Oumar died a few minutes later, on November 7, 2016. Between January and December 2016, ALIMA/AMCP treated nearly 100,000 children for malaria in 154 health centers in Mali.

At the URENI school in Dioila, nurses and doctors from hospitals across the country are trained on how to treat cases of severe malnutrition. More than 200 health staff were trained by ALIMA in 2016.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Men from a village along the road to Boda help the ALIMA team free their car in order to get women and their children to the local health clinic.

Seventeen-year-old Vanessa Tabossos gave birth to her first child, a baby girl, at the Petevo health clinic in October. ALIMA supports 10 health centers and one hospital in CAR, and helped 4,530 women give birth in 2016.

Fifteen-year-old Louise Wensane had an emergency cesarean section at the Boda hospital in October, after going into early labor. The operation went well and Louise is now the mother of a healthy 2.8 kilogram baby girl. When asked the next day by the midwife if she was hurting, Louise said: “I have my baby, so it doesn’t hurt.” In 2016, ALIMA performed 88 cesarean sections in CAR.

CHAD

The DIDIMAS project studies the infectious causes of diarrhea in severely malnourished children with complications. Researchers uses BioFire – a molecular technology – to identify the prevalence of pathogens associated with diarrhea in children. ALIMA believes that medical research and humanitarian action are complementary. Over the past seven years, ALIMA has carried out 10 scientific studies in five countries in Africa.

©Sylvain Cherkaoui /COSMOS / ALIMA

Photo 1: A nurse visits her patients in the “transition ward” at the nutrition unit in N’Djamena’s only free-of-charge clinic for treating malnutrition. This is the last stage of the treatment before children can be sent home.

Photo 2: A mother feeds her daughter therapeutic milk to help her recover from undernutrition. In 2016, ALIMA and its partner Alert Santé treated 23,000 children in Chad who were suffering from malnutrition.

N'Djamena - ©European Union/ECHO/Isabel Coello

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Photo 1: Along the Lufira River, health facilities are preparing to treat patients with cholera. Cholera is usually spread by water or food that has been contaminated by feces from a person infected with cholera.

Photo 2: The theater troupe, known as ‘Action Against Disease’ educates local communities about the signs and symptoms of cholera, as well as prevention measures. In 2016, ALIMA responded to a cholera outbreak and treated 1,470 patients.

niger

A Rift Valley Fever outbreak has been affecting the Tahoua region since August 2016. Rift Valley Fever is a hemorrhagic disease that is spread when people come into contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of infected animals, primarily livestock. It is also transmitted via unpasteurized milk. Between 8 August and 21 November 2016, 32 people died from Rift Valley Fever in Niger.

Medical teams care for patients who were suspected of having Rift Valley Fever at a treatment center in Tchintabaraden. Since August 2016, ALIMA and BEFEN (Wellbeing of Women and Children in Niger) treated 354 suspected cases in the Tahoua region.

At the intensive nutritional unit in the Mirriah hosptial, Doctor Baldé and his team exam four-month-old Ibrahim Omar, a malnourished child, who is also suffering from vomiting and diarrhea. In 2016, ALIMA treated more than 38,000 children for malnutrition in Maradi and Zinder regions.

Awa Houdou holds her child, Zango Kalogo, who was hospitalised for more than a week at the Mirriah Hospital, because of malnutrition. In 2016, ALIMA treated more than 38,000 children for malnutrition in Maradi and Zinder regions.

A health promoter shows mothers how to screen their children for malnutrition at home, using a simple, color-coded arm band. ALIMA trained more than 170,000 mothers in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Chad how to use this lifesaving method in 2016. Early detection is key to reducing infant and child mortality in the Sahel.

Boulbaram - ©Sylvain Cherkaoui/COSMOS/ALIMA

GUINEA

Eleven-year-old Tohon was the first patient to be cured during the latest flareup of the Ebola outbreak in southeastern Guinea. In March 2016, ALIMA reopened its treatment center in N’Zérékoré, following the resurgence.

Help us do more

In 2017, help us do even more. A 100 Euro donation allows us to care for a hospitalized child suffering from severe acute malnutrition. After the tax deduction, this donation costs you just 25 Euros. A simple gesture that can directly save lives in the places where aid is needed most.