Helping displaced people access quality health care

Mali | CERF | 2024

Mali, Ménaka. Aissata (not her real name), remembers the day she fell ill. "My stomach hurt that day, I was weak and I had no appetite. Worst of all, I had no money and my husband was away," she recalls.

More than 72,500 people were displaced in Mali last year, as a result of clashes between rival armed groups, inter-community conflicts and military operations by the Malian armed forces against non-state armed groups. Gao, Kidal, Ménaka, Mopti, Taoudénit and Timbuktu regions are the worst affected, along with areas in the south.

Aissata and her family have been displaced even longer: they were forced to leave their home in Anderamboukane in 2021, because of fighting. Now, she is among the hundreds of thousands of Malians who can’t easily access health care.

Because of the crisis, there are fewer doctors and nurses available. Several hospitals and clinics have had to close. In Ménaka, there is a shortage of medicines and medical equipment. Meanwhile, acute respiratory infections, malnutrition, and other diseases are on the rise as people struggle to cope.

To help Mali maintain quality health services in areas impacted by the insecurity, the World Health Organization, with support from the Central Emergency Response Fund, is providing the Health Ministry with medicines and other supplies, and helping to build the skills of health workers.

They are also funding mobile clinics to get help to isolated people in the centre of Ménaka and in Tidermane and Anderamboukane, the two most dangerous districts.

Thanks to the mobile clinics, Aissata was able to access the care she needed. "A friend told me about free care provided by health workers who come in a vehicle. I was also given free medicine. If it wasn't for the free consultation that day, I don’t know what I would have done,” the young mother said.

CERF funding has helped train health workers in crisis response. Mohamed Toure is one of them: he also learned epidemiological surveillance and rumour management. Conducting research, surveillance, data collection and rapid detection of post-vaccination side-effects, Toure is also equipped to offer psychological support.

"My role is to provide survivors with relief while helping to reduce their fear and stress,” Mohamed says. Then they can access medical care with confidence and remain in good health," he explains.

Published November 2024

Based on an original WHO story, from April 2024

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