We are so grateful for The Church at Brook Hills family and your support of Compassion Survival programming in Tanzania, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. Sadly, around the world, 11,500 children die each day within the first year of life, mostly from preventable causes. Thanks to your gracious giving, babies served by Compassion Survival have a greater likelihood of reaching their first birthday. Your generosity enables the staff at six local church partners to provide critical care to its community’s children at the time of life when they need it the most — at the very beginning!
This report shares recent activities at the six centers you support in Burkina Faso, and the transformation you have made possible for families in this beautiful country. We hope you feel as blessed by this report as they have been by your investment.
Survival Statistics in Burkina Faso
- 660 Prenatal/infants receiving Survival support
- 654 Mothers/caregivers receiving program benefits
- 45 Local churches implementing Survival services
Survival Statistics at the Six Centers Supported by The Church at Brook Hills
- 120 Prenatal/infants receiving Survival support
- 119 Mothers/caregivers receiving program benefits
- 57 Full-term births attended in the last year
- 6 Babies with low weight at birth in the last year
Recent Survival Activities in Burkina Faso
Every month, Survival Specialists weigh and measure each baby to monitor their growth. Nikiema (on the scale) has just turned six months old and is growing well with the help of a nutritious porridge given to his mother through the program. He also received warm clothes and ointment to protect his skin.
Good health is the result of a varied and rich healthy diet. During group activities, women receive teachings and a food basket to improve their diet. It is important that women received bags of rice (as shown) because food is very expensive in the winter months and many women cannot afford to provide adequate food for themselves and their families. The beneficiaries smile and say thanks for the gifts they received at the church of rice, ointment and fish.
Survival Specialists regularly visit caregivers and children at their homes. This is a special time for mothers to share what is going on in their lives and ask questions. Here, Justine is asking her Survival Specialist about allergy symptoms her nine month old infant experiences when they go into the village to visit her parents. After this lesson, she learned that it was an allergy related to the water from the village well she used.
Group activities at the church also include lessons for fathers. The Health Specialist discusses important family planning topics to the husbands – who listen with attention, interest, awareness and also asked a lot of questions to understand their concerns related to this issue. Birth spacing is an important, and often overlooked, element to child survival due to competition between children for care and food as well as health complications for the mother.
At six months old, it is necessary to supplement a baby’s diet with foods other than breast milk. Here, Brigitte feeds her seven month old, Edwige, with enriched porridge (baby food) during an activity at the child development center. At the end of each group activity, the flour to make this porridge is given to the mothers to mix with breast milk to feed their babies at home at least three times a day. This provides to them energy, protein and other nutrients. Thanks to this nutritional support, Edwige is healthy, growing well and likes to play.
One of the benefits of the Survival program is that every mother and baby receive medical check-ups twice a year. These checkups allow staff to follow up the health status of the participants. Awa is happy to know that her baby Aminata, five months old, is healthy, gaining weight and growing normally. On the other hand, Awa was finally treated for dermatitis, which she had suffered from for 13 years.