The village where the project has been launched is called BALANDOUGOU. It’s located about 13km from Mali, 160km from Kankan and 80km from Siguiri.
This is where Mamady KEITA, famous international Djembéfola, was born in the 50s. The movie “Djembefola” was shot there in 1992 and explains his exceptional career.
Nowadays, the villagers (approx. 2500) have no running water or electricity and there is no healthcare system. An average family has 4 children.
There are many diseases due to the precarious conditions: diarrhoea and malaria are quite common. Other diseases are often of unknown origin or come from wound infections which were not properly treated.
Traditional medicine men aren’t really qualified to deal with these diseases and they don’t have the right medicine to cure their patients. This is why they can only cure about 10% of the local diseases.
An ordinary cold can sometimes be fatal, sometimes it takes months for a wound to heal because it has only been disinfected with hot water… Mortality hits children most because they are the most vulnerable.
This is really unacceptable as often, a proper medical diagnosis with the right medical care would be enough to save them.
The villagers live in hard circumstances as there are few resources.
Their main source of income comes from agriculture which is hardly enough to cover their basic needs. Being climate-dependant, a good season will produce the necessary food whereas a bad one will make it a lot worse and unfortunately, there are no alternatives.
The closest hospital is located in Kankan at about 160km from Balandougou…The travel time to reach the hospital is approx. 9 hours!! Moreover, healthcare is not financially accessible to everybody and in addition the patient and his/her family have to find accommodation in Kankan. There is no social security system. These are the reasons why the villagers consult a traditional medicine man, taking the risk of medical errors with sometimes fatal consequences.
