Always on Call

My occupation is a farmer, which requires hard manual work all day long. As a community health worker, I am always on call. Even when I am away from my village, people continue to ask me for advice. I was recently at an event in the nearby village of Djekabougou which, unlike my community of Satiguila, has no village pharmacy. It was there that two parents approached me unexpectedly and asked if I could examine their one-year-old baby. Their son was suffering from dehydration – a condition which they knew I had experience in treating. After examining the baby, I discovered the cause: diarrhea. I returned to my village immediately to pick up zinc tablets and two bags of oral rehydration solution and headed back to the sick child. I explained the treatment to the parents, recommended some hygiene measures, and suggested that the mother breastfeed her child while he recuperated. The baby was better by the next day and, later on, the boy’s parents came to my village to thank me for my help. It is such a rewarding feeling to be able to save a young child’s life. In my own family, I have four girls and four boys. I want them to have a good education, good social position, and good jobs that permit them to deal with and provide for their needs. Most importantly, I dream of lifelong good health for all of us.