Final day for Cœur de Gazelles
Day 8, Zaouia
Children and Cœur de Gazelles
The final day of the 2018 caravan is already here… One last village, a last set of smiles and the Cœur de Gazelles team will have completed its mission… a mission in which children have a special place. The caravan includes a paediatrics unit alongside the General Medicine unit.
Aziz and Abdelkhalek, the team’s two Moroccan paediatric surgeons, examine the children who come to see the doctors. It is even more difficult to win the trust of a child than an adult, especially when they are very young. The further the caravan ventures into the remote corners of Morocco, the less socialized the children are. They are not used to seeing doctors and are highly distrustful.
Fortunately, the paediatricians’ training and know-how, with the help of the parents, can do miracles. The work done with these young people is extremely important, even more so than with the adults. It is easier to teach them about good eating and hygiene habits, which will help them become informed adults. Abdel has even learned to speak Berber to facilitate communication with his patients.
Year-round follow-up
Patient follow-up is especially important for children, perhaps even more so than for adults, because the earlier they receive care, the better the chances of successfully eradicating their health problems.
Naïma, aged 8, comes to consult the doctors because she has a chronic limp. She has trouble using her legs properly, resulting in difficulty walking. Noura, who is in charge of patient follow-up, decides to give Naïma a pair of crutches to allow her to get around by herself and books her an appointment with a neurologist. The goal is to determine the causes of her handicap, in order to provide appropriate treatment and perhaps a permanent cure.
Another patient, an adult this time, is also transferred by the doctors today. An ultrasound reveals a large stone in her gall bladder. Having never received medical care, she is in a fragile state of health. An ambulance is quickly called for an immediate transfer. The patient is sent to the closest hospital, where she will have surgery as soon as possible.
Cœur de Gazelles will continue to follow these patients even after the end of the medical caravan, because we have a year-round commitment to the local populations.
SPOTLIGHT: the administrative unit
In addition to providing medical care, the Cœur de Gazelles caravan performs the important task of collecting and processing data on the care and treatments provided, making it possible to generate precise statistics on the volunteers’ activities.
Thanks to Sylvie, Caroline and Sandra, after the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles, the association will be able to determine how many patients visited the caravan along with their ages and their symptoms. This information is extremely important as it is used to analyse the need for medical supplies in the field. For example, the pharmacists use it in planning their inventory for the following year, to help ensure that they have enough—but not too much—of each medication, to avoid waste. Similarly, the optical unit uses this information to build an appropriate inventory of the glasses it will need.
This year brought something new to the administration office. Our partner, CBA Informatique Libérale, accompanied the caravan in the field to analyse the way we operate. The goal is to come up with a software solution that will facilitate the day-to-day job of the volunteers and improve data collection and exploitation.
To that end, Hélène, Guillaume and Benjamin worked for 10 days alongside the caravan’s team. We would like to thank them for their work and for the investment and dedication they showed throughout the caravan.
PHOTOS
