Feature Stories

Côte d'Ivoire religious groups get support to enhance mental health care

Bouake – In Côte d’Ivoire, popular beliefs often associate mental illness with paranormal events or spiritual manifestations. Most people seek care for mental health conditions in prayer camps set up by pastors. However, the “care” provided does not conform to standards and protocols for appropriate mental health services. 

Broadening access to hypertension care in Burkina Faso

Ouagadougou – Domdasse Adama could barely walk, with his left side paralysed and reliant on a cane. “But thanks to the support and treatment I received for hypertension, I can now walk on my own, and even ride a bicycle for several kilometres," he says.

Adama's journey to recovery from impaired mobility due to hypertension was far from easy. In the bustling town of Gana in central Burkina Faso, where medical resources were limited, his struggle to receive timely and effective care was a common challenge. 

Treating the war-wounded in eastern Chad

Leaning against the wall in a corridor at the University Hospital Centre in Abeche, a town around 900 km east of the Chadian capital N'Djamena, Dr Sassil Dare takes a few minutes to catch his breath. It is 3pm and he has already completed three surgeries.

Eliminating hepatitis

When Jean Paul Nduwumwe decided to have a hepatitis test while accompanying his pregnant wife on a clinic visit, he had no idea that following a positive result and three months of treatment his health and well-being would be restored, and he would feel “reborn”.

Addressing noncommunicable diseases

For four months Stella Fikiri underwent a variety of tests at several private health care institutions, before finally being diagnosed with diabetes at the Magomeni Public Health Facility in Kinondoni, a district in Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

Mobile clinics fill health care gap

Attending a health centre was an “unattainable luxury” after the Batsirai and Emnati cyclones hit Madagascar’s south-eastern Vatovavy region in February 2022, cutting off any access to care for Toky Rabemaharo and his community.

Transforming chronic disease care

Challenged by high cholesterol levels and hypertension, and later diabetes, 58-year-old Mola Admassie says his life has significantly changed thanks to the availability of noncommunicable disease services at the health centre 600 metres from his home.