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Introduction
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Introduction Guinea is a West-African country bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, bordered in the Northwest by Guinea-Bissau (lusophonic), in the North by Senegal (French-speaking), in the East by Mali (French-speaking), in the South-East by Ivory Coast (French-speaking) and in the South by Liberia (English-speaking) and Sierra Leone (English-speaking). Guinea Conakry also includes the islands of Los offshore from the capital city, Conakry. With more than 1,5 million people, Conakry is also an important city because of its harbour.Issue The village where the project has been launched is called BALANDOUGOU. It's located about 13km from Mali, 160km from Kankan and 80km from Siguiri.Doubale weergeven op een grotere kaart This is where Mamady KEITA, famous international Djembéfola, was born in the 50s. The movie "Djembefola" was shot there in 1992 and explains his exceptionnal career. Nowadays, the villagers (approx. 2500) have no running water or electricity and there is no healthcare system. An average family has 4 children. There are many diseases due to the precarious conditions: diarrhea and malaria are quite common. Other diseases are often of unknown origin or come from wound infections which were not properly treated. Traditional medicine men aren't really qualified to deal with these diseases and they don't have the right medicine to cure their patients. This is why they can only cure about 10% of the local diseases. An ordinary cold can sometimes be fatal, sometimes it takes months for a wound to heal because it has only been disinfected with hot water... Mortality hits children most because they are the most vulnerable. This is really unacceptable as often, a proper medical diagnosis with the right medical care would be enough to save them. The villagers live in hard circumstances as there are few resources. Their main source of income comes from agriculture which is hardly enough to cover their basic needs. Being climate-dependant, a good season will produce the necessary food whereas a bad one will make it a lot worse and unfortunately, there are no alternatives. The closest hospital is located in Kankan at about 160km from Balandougou...The travel time to reach the hospital is approx. 9 hours!! Moreover, healthcare is not financially accessible to everybody and in addition the patient and his/her family have to find accomodation in Kankan. There is no social security system. These are the reasons why the villagers consult a traditional medicine man, taking the risk of medical errors with sometimes fatal consequences. Creation of the organisation Doubale The organisation Doubale was created thanks to the mayor of Mishima, which is a small group of islands located in South Japan. Mamady Keïta has gone there every year to teach djembé for almost 15 years now. The mayor wanted to thank him by asking what would make him happy.This is how the idea of creating a free health centre in his native village emerged. It will be accessible to the villagers of Balandougou and the inhabitants of the surrounding villages who can't benefit from such an infrastructure. The Japanese government will also bring its financial help. Without them, this project couldn't have been realised. In practical terms, this meant that an organisation had to be created in order to realise the project. The name Doubale comes from a holy tree in the Mandingue country, which is essential for the creation of a village. The members of Doubale are:
At the present time... The construction is almost finished but the building is open and roofless. It also lacks all necessary facilities like furniture, medical equipment and medicine.The association is also seeking a/several doctor(s) or nurse(s) to run the health centre and ideally train one or two persons there in basic care and first aid. A solar pump still needs to be installed to purify the water but this is very expensive. The financial needs are still pretty high and once the health centre will be full operational, the ambition of the association Doubale is to make it accessible to as many as possible by limiting the consultation, care and medicine costs... Your help is absolutely necessary! Please contact us for further information or if you can support us with:
by electronic mail: info [at] doubale.org by phone: +32 (0)479/ 70 80 31 by postal mail:
Bank account IBAN: BE64 3630 4459 2152 BIC:BBRU BE BB All the villagers from Balandougou and surrounding villages thank you for your help! |