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Mali

Mali: a mobile healthcare unit to reach people in need in Mopti region

The conflict that erupted in northern Mali in 2012 continues to trigger the mass displacement of people throughout the country. In 2020 alone, more than 287,000 people were forced to flee violence, often leaving their whole lives behind them. Many seek refuge in the Mopti region of central Mali, where the EU supports Save the Children to provide primary health care to those in need.

According to the United Nations, Mopti is the improvised home of up to a third of the 6.8 million Malians who currently require humanitarian assistance. For displaced people, access to basic essential services, including health care, is a priority for their survival. However, they often lack the financial means to pay for the services they need.

EU humanitarian aid has funded projects supporting the victims of Mali’s conflict since 2012. “Forcibly displaced populations, especially children and women, require urgent health care, clean water, food and shelter, and protection assistance,” explains Patricia Hoorelbeke, Head of the EU’s humanitarian aid office in Mali.

One of the EU’s humanitarian partners in Mali is Save the Children. Through support provided by EU humanitarian aid, Save the Children set up a mobile clinic for the care of vulnerable people.

The purpose of the clinic is to provide free, quality medical and nutritional assistance to all internally displaced people (men, women, the elderly and children) in the Mopti Health District, as well as to vulnerable host populations.

The mobile clinic is part of a wider project that supports displaced people by also providing food and basic essential items.

“Mobile clinics are an effective way of delivering essential medical care to people where other health services, may be inaccessible or in dangerous places or not able to cater for their specific issue,” says Victoria Dean Lyon, Save the Children’s Manager of the partnership with the EU’s humanitarian aid department.

The mobile clinic is part of a wider project that supports displaced people by also providing food and basic essential items.

“Mobile clinics are an effective way of delivering essential medical care to people where other health services, may be inaccessible or in dangerous places or not able to cater for their specific issue,” says Victoria Dean Lyon, Save the Children’s Manager of the partnership with the EU’s humanitarian aid department.

“It is not easy for us to live far away from our house, our belongings and everything. We have given up everything to escape this situation,” Ramata explains. Her husband works as a day labourer but it is hard for the family to make ends meet, let alone afford health care.

“I suffer from recurring headaches, lack of appetite and stress. My 2 children are sick; they suffer from fevers and small wounds on the head. Due to our lack of financial means, I have treated them with traditional medicines which have not been effective,” she continues.

The mobile clinic set up by Save the Children with EU funds has brought relief to Ramata and her family, as they can now have access to professional medical attention and medicines to treat illnesses. “My great satisfaction is to have received medicine because to my suffering is added the suffering of the children,” says the mother.

Aissata Kassambara, originally from Borko, a rural village to the northwest of the Mopti region, was left with no option but to escape with her family, after armed groups attacked her village. Aissata, together with her husband and 4 children, found refuge in Sévaré, and are now being hosted by relatives, originally from the same village.

Although her husband works during the day, he is not paid regularly and life is hard for the 31-year-old and her family. “We find it difficult to feed the children, to ensure their school education and to care for them. In Borko, I used to do small businesses to help my husband, but here I don’t have sources of income to do so,” tells us Aissata.

The support provided by the EU-funded Save the Children project helps provide medical care, as well as food kits along with other domestic equipment for vulnerable people affected by conflict, such as Aissata’s family – it brings them temporary relief until they can stand on their feet again.

“When the lull comes, I hope with all my heart, we will return to Borko to rebuild our lives,” says Aissata, thinking about the future.