RCA 19 – BAGANDOU HOSPITAL
Project Location
The village of Bagandou, about 130 km from Bangui in the south-west of the Central African Republic, is located in the middle of equatorial forest. The area is inhabited by the Aka Pygmy population (about 50%) and Bantu (50%). The Pygmies have always lived in the forest with a very simple lifestyle, living on fishing and subsistence hunting and what they collect in the forest. The average life span is 40 years, the literacy rate very low, their activities little exposed to trade, so they are easily exploited as cheap labor by the Bantu population.
In Bagandou there is a hospital, founded in 2004 thanks to funding from the Diocese of Tarnow in Poland, in particular thanks to the group of "missionary children" who, every year, go from house to house to raise funds to support the hospital. The geographical area of activity of the hospital of Bagandou covers a population of about 22,000 inhabitants in a radius that reaches up to 100 km away (within the forest).
The hospital has a capacity of 55 beds, and an average of 5,000 people are consulted annually, of whom about 2,000 are hospitalized. 60% of them are children, with many cases of severe anemia due to repeated illness, which require blood transfusions (about 25 transfusions per month). We also see many cases of malnutrition in children.
To meet the needs of hospitalized patients who come from afar, for about six years there has been a kitchen service that offers a snack in the morning and a meal at noon for each sick person. The hospital has a Land Cruiser that acts as an ambulance and is used to go to the villages of the Pygmies for health awareness sessions, to make transfers of seriously ill patients to Bangui and for trips for supplies in medicines and other materials necessary for the operation of the hospital.
Project description
The hospital provides health care to the Pygmy Aka people in this area, who do not have the necessary means to pay for treatment in state hospitals and dispensaries. The help that the hospital gives to these people, who are treated free of charge, is very significant. The Bantu people also benefit from the hospital's care, but because of the high expenses, we ask them to contribute to the costs of treatment and medicine. This does not mean that the "social cases", even within the Bantu people, are not taken care of by the hospital, mainly because we allow everyone to access the necessary care.
The main objective of this project is to contribute to the costs of feeding malnourished children and hospitalized patients. In addition, visits are periodically made to the surrounding pygmy villages for awareness and health education sessions on hygiene, malaria and other diseases, nutrition, etc. During these sessions, and to encourage the participation of the Pygmies, soap and clothing are distributed as needed.
Objectives
- Ensure proper nutrition for malnourished children and other hospitalized patients.
- Raise awareness and health education courses in the surrounding pygmy villages, with distribution of soap and clothes for the Pygmies and for the poorest and neediest sick.
Beneficiaries
Direct: about 5,000 people per year, of which about 2000 are hospitalized. 60% of them are children.
Indirect: the families
Local contribution
Pygmies contribute about 100 FCFA (less than 20 cents) to medical expenses; the Bantu, whenever possible, pay the full amount of treatment.
Referent sister of the project: Sr. Donata Ferrari
Project's costs