Kolda’s new mutual health organization makes care accessible
Mariama Diamanka discusses advantages of Kolda’s new mutual health organization with fellow women’s activist, Khady Baldé. Photo by Mary Cobb, USAID/Senegal |
Mariama Diamanka has been waiting seven years to use the bright blue card in her hand.
That's how long it has taken the people of Kolda to organize its mutual health
organization (MHO) to make health care affordable to the people. And in a region
like Kolda, one of Senegal's poorest, accessing care can be very difficult.
Articulate
and confident, the 48-year-old widow knows exactly what is needed to care for
her family. A former secretary who runs her own bookkeeping business, Mariama
is an outgoing spokesperson for the Women's and Children's Development Association
of Kolda.
For years she and her friends observed that women in particular had difficulty
accessing and paying for health care. They realized their need for an MHO, and
even studied the possibilities, with the first attempt failing in 2005. A second
feasibility study led to an activity that rattled and crumbled over
a leadership crisis.
The
USAID Health Program stepped in to help resolve the conflicts by convening several
meetings to set up a 32-member steering committee from community-based organizations.
USAID’s implementing partners trained the committee in how to organize
and run an MHO. The committee’s first enrollment drive from March
to June 2007 brought in almost 600 women.
“With USAID and the chief medical officer of the region, we held
a general assembly that brought together 300 women from several associations. During
the assembly we decided to go ahead and do it,” Mariama said.
According
to Hawa Dia, the MHO’s new president, that day “was
historic for the women of Kolda.”
Mariama Diamanka proudly holds her new mutual health organization membership in Kolda, Senegal. Photo by Mary Cobb, USAID/Senegal |
Things
came together quickly. Today the MHO has 650 members, each paying about $2 (1,000
F CFA) to enroll and 40c (200 F CFA) in monthly fees. The health scheme
covers doctor's consultation, dental care, hospitalization, laboratory fees,
medication, and X-rays. MHO members pay 25% of the costs and the MHO covers
the remaining 75%. The health center committee also gives MHO members a 10% discount
on medication. The commune of Kolda has granted a piece of land to the
MHO while a microfinance group has agreed to develop a website and provide management
support and a grant to help get the MHO up and running.
Since 2001, USAID/Senegal has supported 25 MHOs, including two new organizations
in the Kolda region and one in Bignona.
“We thank the American people and USAID for their help. We have
wanted this MHO for a very long time,” says Mariama, who is enrolled with
her mother and two of her six children still living with her.
“There were times when I was sick, and instead of going to get help,
I just suffered through it,” she recalls of times when money was in short
supply. Like many others, Mariama sometimes went to see the marabout (religious
leader) instead of consulting a nurse or doctor.
But those days are over. Mariama is excited about the new possibilities that
the MHO brings to Kolda and makes the rounds in her neighborhood to convince
others to join. She says she will break in her shiny new card when she heads
to the health center to have a doctor take a look at her achy back. For
Mariama and the others of the Kolda MHO, no longer will paying for health care
be a pain in the neck.
|
