Vaccinate Children and Prevent NINE Diseases

The Ouelessebougou Alliance successfully ensured the administration life-saving vaccines throughout the month of October. We are excited to share with you the remarkable statistics showcasing the number of vaccines distributed and the inspiring stories of individuals whose lives were transformed.

October 2023:

Children : 1225

Pregnant women : 823

“ I did not believe the importance of vaccinations until this year. I met Djiba, the Field Director of the Ouelessebougou Alliance in our village of Siembougou who explained to me how important is the vaccinations, particularly how they prevent diseases and save the lives of children. Unfortunately, two of my children passed away this year in a week because of measles and meningitis . The first child was five years old and the second one was three years old. I denied the vaccinations since I was a little boy in my rural area of Keleyadougou. The following days after the passing of my children, Djiba took my third child of one year old to vaccinate against measles, meningitis, tetanus, hepatitis A and B. Four days later, my child got the symptoms of measles and meningitis. I went to the hospital with him and fortunately, son did not die and since then I started loving vaccinating my children and even any children in my family and my villages. I volunteer my time to organize the vaccinations and ask parents to bring their children to the clinics for vaccinations. I am one of the best supporters of vaccinations in our village and surrounding villages. I am here today with seven children including mine to follow their childhood routine vaccinations. My child is alive because of vaccinations. I do not wait my wife to take my child to the clinic for vaccinations. I check the vaccinations dates and take him to the clinics on time and I do not want him to miss any of

his childhood vaccinations,” Moussa Doumbia a father of child in the village of Siembougou.

“ The way people say that water is life is exactly the same way for children vaccinations—baby  is vaccinations. It means that without water there is no life and without vaccinations there are no babies—especially in rural areas of Mali where there is so much need of vaccinations and  infantile death rate is really high. The vaccination program change and save lives. In our community “ Siratou Bagayoko, a mother of five children in the village of Folona.

“ I used to walk two hours with my baby on my back to get vaccinations in our nearest community health center. Because of the Ouelessebougou  Alliance, we do our vaccinations in our village. It gives stipends to the vaccinators for their time and gas to come to our villages—all our children get vaccinated and less children die because of preventable diseases compare to back in 2000 “, Mariama Diarra, a primary school teacher in the village of Zelambougou 

“ Two of my first borns were still borns and then since I started doing all my pregnancies vaccinations and other procedures, I have not lost any kids and my children are healthier and happier than the previous. The reason of that is following all the routine vaccinations. “ Adiaratou a household in the village of Sounsounkoro 

Links:

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June 30th marks the end of our fiscal year and in the past year we are pleased to report that we helped vaccinate19213 in the past 4 months. This is the largest number of vaccinations we have completed in a year in the history of our organization. We are pleased to see the efforts of our field director Djiba Soumaoro have such a dramatic impact. Djiba has been working tirelessly with the vaccination distributors to come up with a more efficient way to ensure that villagers are available and will turn up when it is time to be vaccinated. 

Last month, I had the opportunity to see this impact in person when I traveled to Ouelessebougou, Mali. I spent my time working with our incredible local staff planning for our next year and visiting our partner villages to assess our programs. Our team had decided to pass by our partner village, Fadiobougou, to speak with our adult literacy teacher there. However, while we were there we realized the Ouelessebougou Hospital nurse was also there to distribute immunizations! We were thrilled to see this program in action in “the wild” so to speak. 

While in Fadiobougou, I had the opportunity to speak with one of the women, Dinese, waiting to get her new born baby the 45-day vaccination. Dinese is an elementary school teacher and believes strongly in the importance of getting children vaccinated to give them the best chance at life. This is why she brought her first born daughter, Kadiatou, to get her next round of vaccinations. 

It was such a joy to meet the parents so dedicated to making a future for their children and so wonderful to see this project running on its own in one of the many communities we serve. Thank you for being a part of this incredible program.