08 May 2007

Mothers Measure Their Children's Growth and Gain Confidence

Partnership for a Better Life

 

A young girl waits for a doctor to administrate a vaccine in a hospital in Senegal. (© AP Images)

"The children get vaccinations, and we get lots of health information that we can talk about together," says Maymuna, mother of three.

Traveling 25 kilometers in the midday heat, Maymuna and her three children arrive at the Gamaadji health clinic in northern Senegal, where dozens of mothers and their children eagerly await their turn to be weighed and vaccinated. Maymuna has learned from the other mothers that the benefits of participating in Counterpart International's maternal and child health program are worth the hot, tiresome walk.

Maymuna points to her information card, on which Doctor Amadou Keita has charted her children's growth rates as well as all of her children's vaccinations. "Before, the children got vaccinated at birth and sometimes after six months. Now they are always up to date," she beams.

The program, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), organizes the traveling medical team, which consists of two nurses and one doctor, and selects a community health worker from each village to assist. Families whose children are found to be malnourished are given rations of wheat-soy blend, grains and cooking oil, and they also receive nutritional advice.

"Everybody always ate, but now they eat better. The rations augment what they already had," says Keita, who explains that positive reinforcement for mothers who are achieving their child's height and weight goals goes a long way. "Mothers are more confident and comfortable with the health of their kids when they can see it charted on the cards. The proof is they keep coming back for checkups," the doctor adds.

Maymuna finds that her youngest is charted in the yellow area. Rather than finding it upsetting news, she is pleased that she found out early and can take measures to prevent further problems. She chats with the nurse and other mothers and measures her portion of grains into a USAID-labeled cooking oil tin to take home, ready to help her child maintain a healthier weight and height.

Carefully resting the tin on a brightly colored cloth and balancing it on her head, Maymuna gathers her children and begins the long walk home, glowing in the knowledge that she is surrounded by such a warm, health-conscious community supporting her as she cares for her family.

(Adapted from an article published by Counterpart International/Senegal.)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)