Lending a Canadian helping hand to Senegal
Published Thursday June 4th, 2009
Solidarité Africadie seeks to help the financially less fortunate.
Mathieu Gallant and Crystal LeBlanc did not realize the journey that lay ahead when they headed out to Senegal with friends in 2006. As they settled into the small rural community of Diofior, along with falling in love with the landscape and the people, they soon discovered how lucky they were as Canadians. What they found was a desperate need for financial support that they as Canadians could answer to. Upon their return to Canada, they founded the humanitarian group Solidarité Africadie.
The current world food crisis, which has caused the price of rice "" which is the main food staple of the Senegalese population "" to double between 2007 and 2008, does not help the economic situation of this area, which is already hard-hit by endemic unemployment and the aftermath of a drought that ruined crops and killed livestock in 2007.
In short, the population lives in precarious conditions that can be seen in the extent and pace of the increase in poverty in many Senegal areas due to which many families cannot meet their food and medical expenses.
The first time I spoke with Mathieu was in spring 2008 at the Earth Day Festival. At this point, with the funds raised at the Reggae Vibes benefit concert (November 16, 2007), the future director of the Diaga Ñakar Socio-Medical Centre, Ibrahima Dione, had acquired two pieces of land, built the cement walls of two of the four rooms of the clinic, dug the well, planted a jatropha (biofuel-producing shrub) hedge around the perimeter, and started the seedlings for the medicinal plant and tree botanical garden.
"Since then," he explained, "we have received another significant private donation that allowed us to build the walls for five other sections. Then we've received another large donation in the last months, with that we are almost done putting up the roof and the doors. The building is almost done and the well has been dug, so they have fresh water."
The doctor/director Dione is a man Gallant and LeBlanc had met and grown close to when in the village of Diofior, as he spoke to them of his knowledge of traditional medicine. The centre was Dione's idea. He had worked in medical centres in Senegal funded by the west, where doctors didn't get treated well and had pitiful salaries. Also, the cost to the patient was kept so high that people who got sick in the poorest families didn't have access to healthcare.
"Our director went to see the Ministry of Health of Senegal to talk about the project and they were very open to the idea and are so enthusiastic about it that they feel that our project could be a sort of pilot project, and if it works well it could be a model that they could export all over the country, even in all of Western Africa," Dione said.
They are now hoping that the government will give them the $10,000 needed to finish the project, which is needed to open the center in the fall.
The goal of the project is to use the natural remedies that have come out of the traditional medicine that is practiced in the area. Dione, who is a traditional doctor, goes out in the jungle twice a week and harvests different medicinal plants. Then he goes home, dries them and crushes them. Then patients go to see him. He diagnoses them and gives them a treatment when necessary.
"The problem is that he doesn't have proper facilities," Gallant explains. "He lives in a small hut with his wife. Doing all the work himself, he doesn't have much time to see his patients. We are building a hospital that he could operate out of. He doesn't have room to store medicine so he can only gather it a little bit at a time. He can't leave it outside because the dust will get into it or the rain or what not."
Do we as Canadians have a responsibility in helping these people? "Yes," he says. "I feel all individuals have responsibility towards humanity. And all groups have a responsibility towards each other. Canadians as a nation are favoured economically. We have the moral responsibility to help poorer countries financially or by sharing our skills.
"Since we have so much, we have the responsibility to help those who have less. Try to share the wealth in a way. I'm definitely glad to be involved in this. We're kind of like innovating something which might eventually become the standard over there in how medicine is practiced in the African countries."
Because of the low cost of living in rural areas of Senegal and the exchange rate, Mathieu explains that "we can build and fully equip the centre for less than $12,000. After this initial injection of funds, the Centre can begin its regular activities and quickly reach self-sufficiency."
Because of its very low operating costs, the Centre will be self-sufficient. The annual operation costs will be easily covered by sales of medicines as well as by treatment and consultation fees. All net income will be returned to the community via the Centre's philanthropic activities (medical, social and agro-ecological).
"What we do is help them help themselves. They have ideas, they have the know-how. We are simply trying to give them a little backing so that they can start off. When we discussed the creation of the program they had this Senegal vision of how we could proceed. And me with my Canadian perception I had certain ideas that they had not thought of," Gallant said.
For more information or to donate time or money contact Mathieu Gallant at Solidarité Africadie at solidarite@africadie.org or call 382-8608 Visit the website at www.africadie.org
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