This past fall, Friends of Mauritania (FORIM) was contacted by a French family participating in a health intervention involving a young boy named Slama from Mauritania. FORIM immediately recognized the child because of FORIM's past involvement in his health care in 1999 and again in 2001. The French couple informed FORIM that Slama would need to return to Paris in September of 2002 to undergo a major heart operation, and was requesting on his behalf assistance for Slama's travel expense.
After some discussion of if and how FORIM would assist, the acting board of FORIM decided to consider other options of support a/o provide the needed resources for a plane ticket. If another source of support could not be found, FORIM private resources were approved for use in this intervention. The most obvious measure for obtaining this support was through the local Air France office. FORIM communicated the difficult situation to Air France in Washington DC and formally requested their assistance in this matter. Unfortunately, they were not able to help in this special case, citing lack of resources. FORIM came into contact with a former PCV of Mauritania. Tracy became interested in the effort and offered her frequent flyer miles for Slama, which then enabled FORIM to organize the details for his travel to Paris. The French couple introduced FORIM to Slama's uncle, a university teacher of mechanics in Nouakchott, who picked-up the plane ticket from the local airlines bureau and ensured Slama's departure from Mauritania. The French couple, Mecenat, Slama's uncle in Mauritania, Tracy, and FORIM were all facilitators in this scheme to send Slama to France for his medical exam and potentially to receive heart surgery. All parties demonstrated the utmost care and interest in carrying off this aspect of the plan in the most efficient manner. FORIM is relieved and satisfied with the results of the intervention and appreciates the cooperative effort that has established new ties.
In conjunction with Tracy, FORIM coordinated Slama's flight to and from Paris. He reached Paris on the 8th of September, and was picked-up by his host family. As scheduled, Slama went to the Mécenat facility for his examination. Mécenat[1] is an international child's healthcare organization that provides medical services such as valve transplant surgery to children in need. Mécenat has been involved with the stabilization of Slama's health for at least the past four years. Dr. L. at Mécenat is Slama's doctor and is the person who first diagnosed Slama when she visited Mauritania a couple of years ago. Dr. L at Mécenat determined that Slama did not require the heart operation that was originally planned for this year. To everyone's relief, Slama was allowed to return back to his home in Mauritania. Slama returned to home on September 17th.
FORIM was pleased to hear that Slama was keeping good health in Mauritania. He would not require the valve operation this year, but may be considered for it next year. His health condition is still far from normal. The host family recommended that he reside in Nouakchott in case his health deteriorates and something could be done in response. They mentioned that they are working with another young boy in Mali who successfully received a valve transplant and was doing well living near the capital city.
The transportation budget of this health intervention is estimated to be $1,008.55. FORIM's contribution of $40 was used to prepare and fax the necessary airline documents to Slama's uncle in Nouakchott and to the airline carrier in France. Copies of these documents will remain with Julei. Tracy's total contribution is estimated to be $968.55.
| Plane Ticket | $900.00 |
| Itinerary Changes | $38.55 |
| Airport Fees | $30.00 |
| Faxing to France and Mauritania | $40.00 |
| Grand Total | $1,008.55 |
In retrospect, the decision to be involved in this intervention in the same role as before was a difficult decision for FORIM. Currently, the organization suffering from lack of leadership and volunteer participation. Its resources are extremely limited. FORIM has not raised funds since 2000. Unlike many of FORIM's former projects, we would not be able to monitor this activity directly through a NGO or any other organization we worked with before. However, the host family and their partner organization proved to be effective managers in the past and FORIM's previous involvement in the child's healthcare drew us to favorably support the cause again. Who knows what the situation of the organization will be next year?
This health intervention also indicated to us that medical care in Mauritania is not adequate and that there is significant difficulty in accessing basic care from peoples' home regions. Slama's home is over 600 km from the capital and there is no telephone nearby. His health problems stemmed from a respiratory illness that increased in severity without proper treatment. Slama's case is not alone. 12% of children under five years of age in Mauritania were estimated to suffer from acute respiratory infection (at the time of the Pan Arab Project for Child Development, 1991). Throughout the world, approximately two million children under the age of five die from this type of illness. Facilities that manage particular health complications are not as available in most regions outside the big cities. The low ratio of physicians and nurses, 13 and 62, respectively, (in 1998) per 100,000 people also indicate a severe deficiency in the capacity of the health system to extend proper coverage and develop their own system to handle special cases.
Per correspondence with the French family, Mécenat assessed the medical facilities in Nouakchott to not be sufficiently capable of handling such cardiac cases as Slama's or of providing basic blood analysis in an accurate manner. Dr. L recommends that Slama not rely on blood work or care from facilities in Nouakchott. I suspect there may be other factors that determined this recommendation, however no other explanation for why the stateside facilities were inadequate was noted. After operation in France, Slama would need to follow an aspirine-based medication schedule with check-ups in France every two years. The French couple mentioned that another boy Mohamed traveled with Slama from Mauritania to Paris to also receive a heart operation. Unfortunately, he did not survive the operation and naturally, there is a real sense of loss. Children must be protected at least from the treatable diseases that are prevalent in the region due to the climate, air, and public health hazards that are known to exist. The matter of how to ensure this protection seems to be difficult to address considering the means of information dissemination and populations that are far from medical care facilities.
Perhaps our dollars should go toward improving medical technology and improving facilities in Mauritania that detect and care for children with such health complications and improve the quality of basic services. This sort of action will aim to achieve greater impact on a larger number of people and influence a more sustainable system that may raise the standard of care services provided. However, considering the level of financial support needed for such an endeavor and the research required, FORIM is not in a position to take on such development work. Future support for specific individual cases may be possible pending other sources of income that FORIM receives.
If you would like to share your thoughts on this project or information on the standard of healthcare in Mauritania, please forward your comments to forim@yahoo.com or juleik@yahoo.com. We welcome your thoughts on this project.
Mécenat's website is mecenat-cardiaque.asso.fr They may be contacted by email at familles-enfants@mécenat-cardiaque.org.