Vaccinate Children and Prevent NINE Diseases

We have completed our first round of vaccinations for the year in 30 rural villages in and around the Ouelessebougou area. In January and May the Alliance will complete two more rounds of vaccinations--totalling almost 6,000 vaccinations for the year.

Village families in the rural areas of Ouelessebougou continue to face many health risks and diseases every day. In Mali, one in five children does not live past his or her fifth birthday due to preventable diseases such as dysentery, measles and malaria.

The good news--93% of children under the age of five are fully vaccinated in villages where the Alliance provides vaccinations, whereas nationally the numbers are less than 50%. Thank you for helping us continue to prevent disease for families in 30 rural villages.

Sincerely,
Ouelessebougou Alliance staff

Links:

• Deseret News article

It's been a fantastic year for disease prevention in Ouelessebougou, but as villagers approach the rainy season they are anxious to have access to mosquito nets to protect them from the mosquito-borne disease, malaria. They are also anxious to get the last round of vaccinations for the year to protect them from other life-threatening diseases. Village health workers are working hard before the rainy season comes to keep their villages clean and improve the overall health of village families.

This year, the Alliance hopes to provide nearly 5,500 vaccinations—for 2,300 women and children. This brings the total vaccinations that Ouelessebougou has provided in the Ouelessebougou area and surrounding villages to 60,000 since 2003! Although 20% of Malian children die before the age of five, less than 1% of the children in villages where we work die from vaccine preventable deaths. 92.8% of children under five in villages where we work are fully vaccinated, whereas nationally, the numbers are less than 50%.

The Alliance has also provided 600 mosquito nets for village families this year. Because a family of four can sleep under one net, these new nets will protect 2,400 more individuals. Since the Alliance began offering nets at a $1 cost to villagers, we have distributed nearly 5,000 nets since 2004! Unfortunately there are hundreds of villagers that continually request nets from our Mali staff and we haven't been able to fill their requests yet. This year we hope to double the amount of nets we've been providing each year to continue to meet the rising need.

Thanks for your help in making all of these projects come to pass!

Links:

• Utah Newspaper Highlights Our Sustainable Work
• About our Health Programs