Light for Health Facilities

Mission-Statement: Improve health care in Burkina Faso through solar energy!

The Problem

The poor health situation is largely responsible for the very low Human Development Index (HDI) in Burkina Faso. Diseases such as AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis force the average life expectancy right down, to as low as 44 years. For every one doctor there are 25,000 people in Burkina Faso. The ratio in Germany is much lower, at only 1 to 300 .

Some people have to walk a whole day to access healthcare in Burkina Faso. Their destination is most likely to be a CSPS — a health centre comprising a pharmacie (pharmacy), a dispensaire (emergency referral clinic for injuries and diseases) and a maternité (maternity ward). As the majority of the population live in rural areas, these health clinics are the primary healthcare providers in the country. Compared to the huts in the Sahel, the CSPSs found in somewhat bigger settlements have considerably better hygiene standards and better first aid treatment. Heavily pregnant women sometimes make journeys of up to 30 kilometres to get to these healths centres to deliver their baby, as risks such as neonatal and maternal mortality are much lower there.

Nonetheless the situation is dismal. The majority of healthcare facilities are found outside urban settlements and so have no electricity at their disposal. Nonetheless wounds have to be treated and blood transfusions still given after the sun has set. With the majority of births delivered after dark, the most important piece of equipment for all midwives is actually their torch.

Programme Idea

SEWA together with its partners equip healthcare facilities in Burkina Faso with solar power systems that give light to maternité and dispensaire facilities. Patients can be treated and mothers can give birth in these newly-lit establishments after the onset of darkness. The staff there no longer have to work under the light of weak torches or even under the weak light of harmful Kerosene lamps. Staff can concentrate wholly on treating the patients in front of them.

Objectives of the Programme

To improve the level of healthcare in rural Burkina Faso
To improve the working conditions of staff in health faciltiies

History of the Programme

Since 2000 SEWA has worked to install solar power systems in schools in rural Burkina Faso to help improve education. The relevant experience that SEWA has built up after supplying over 50 schools with solar power systems is now being transferred to provide solar light to healthcare facilities in Burkina Faso. At the start of 2008 the CSPS in Salogo was in fact the first healthcare facility in Burkina Faso to benefit from the new programme. In the same year the CSPS in Youba was also electrified. To date SEWA has provided electrical light to seven health facilities.

Conducting the Programme

Similar to the programme with schools, SEWA works very closely with its German partners, such as companies, foundations and schools, to electrify healthcare facilties in Burkina Faso. SEWA is looking for suitable CSPSs, preparing those reponsibile in the facilities by sensitising them to solar power systems and organising the installation of new solar power systems. The actual installation of the systems is carried out by the electronics company Microsow. This will create future jobs in the solar energy sector too. In the first two years after installation, SEWA visits each healthcare facility a minimum of three times in order to guarantee the success of the project.

The whole project cycle is extensively documented, from the very first sensitisation at the point of installation, to our very last monitoring visit. The project partner in Germany assumes the responsibility of financing the project. The costs of electrifying one CSPS — including project monitoring — amount to around €5,000. The individual healthcare facility’s administrative board on the ground assumes responsibility for the solar power system and, after a guarantee period, also for repair and maintenance costs.

Your Help

Become a partner and support a healthcare facility in Burkina Faso!

CSPSs such as the facility in Banogo are hoping for donors to help them in the near future. SEWA documents their projects extensively with reports, photos and even a short film. These are all made available to you and can be used to communicate your commitment to our projects.

We also provide information material on request to schools in Germany who are in partnership. This can be used in classes, giving pupils a vivid and realistic educational reference to developing countries.