Burkina Faso

En Français

The Problem

  • Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) continues to be a widespread problem throughout Burkina Faso, although significant progress has been made.
  • Vitamin A deficiency and anemia are prevalent among school children across the country: according to a 2006 Helen Keller International study, 40% of school children are anemic and the estimated prevalence of Vitamin A deficiency among pre-school children is 46%.
  • Onchocerciasis, trachoma and lymphatic filariasis (LF), three Neglected Tropical Diseases, are endemic in the country. In some regions, LF prevalence rates reach 72%.

What HKI Is Doing

Helen Keller International has been active in Burkina Faso since 1986; our current programs are closely aligned with national government priorities in nutrition and eye health, including:

Vitamin A Supplementation
Since 1999, Helen Keller International has worked with the Ministry of Health (MoH) to increase and maintain high Vitamin A Supplementation (VAS) rates for children 6-59 months old, by finding innovative ways to deliver high-potency capsules twice a year. Since 2001, the HKI-led partnership has achieved 80% coverage in its efforts to combat vitamin A deficiency. The capsules were initially distributed through National Immunization Days (NIDs) established to distribute the polio vaccine. When the NIDs were phased out, HKI and UNICEF worked with government partners to develop new community-based strategies, such as Child Health Weeks.  Vitamin A supplementation was also incorporated into routine services at health centers to maintain the high coverage rates for children and improve those for post-partum women.

Back to top

Food Fortification
In 2008, in order to address vitamin A deficiency in a more sustainable way, HKI catalyzed the launch of a private/public partnership for mandatory nationwide fortification of cooking oil. This program is part of a larger regional initiative, called Tâche D’Huile, covering eight countries in West Africa that have a high portion of vitamin A deficiency related deaths. Controlling VAD has the potential to avert over 20,000 child deaths in Burkina Faso alone.

Approximately 70% of the population consumes industrially-processed oil and it is accessible to the poor who buy it daily in small packets. The project will therefore directly impact 9.9 million people, of whom 1.83 million are children younger than 5 years old.  Helen Keller International works with and monitors the two factories selected to produce and distribute the fortified oil, ensures that regulations are adopted to make vitamin A fortification of cooking oil mandatory, and engages in social marketing to promote the use of the oil by consumers.  For example, in addition to coverage on the television and radio, a song about vitamin A-fortified oil and other vitamin A-rich foods was created to inform and sensitize consumers about the advantages of healthy nutrition. Helen Keller International is working to make food fortification commonplace in West Africa.

Back to top

Integrated School Health
In Burkina Faso, schools far outnumber health centers and are a logical and strategic entry point to provide health interventions. Students also transmit health messages to families and out-of-school peers. Since 2001, Helen Keller International has offered integrated school health programs that reduce malnutrition through school gardens and nutrition education, and prevent blinding trachoma through improved hygiene practices and education (see below). In addition to eating nutritious food from the gardens, the students also receive hands-on lessons in math and science based on garden activities. HKI currently offers this program in the Gourma and Komondjari provinces (East Region).

Gardens help ensure a balanced diet and improve both vitamin A and iron status, which supports a strong immune system, healthy growth, and proper cognitive development - all the elements necessary for children to reach their full potentials.

Back to top

Orange-fleshed Sweetpotato
Community gardens are developed alongside the school gardens, and HKI encourages the local gardeners, who are usually women, to plant and consume orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP). OFSP are a good source of vitamin A, especially compared to their white-fleshed cousins. As a result, improved nutrition is on the rise in areas that grow this potato into their gardens.

Back to top

Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM)
Acute malnutrition is a public health and development problem in countries in the Sahel region (on the southern border of the Sahara desert), like Burkina Faso. Helen Keller International and our partners, working in the Fada N’Gourma and Gayéri health districts, have developed and institutionalized an intervention model that both treats and prevents acute malnutrition. The CMAM model provides a holistic approach by building the capacity of community structures already in place, training community members, and minimizing the time mothers and children must be away at emergency feeding centers and away from the home.

Over one year, 363 health workers in Burkina Faso were trained to prevent and treat malnutrition. Only children suffering from severe acute malnutrition with complications are kept in the centers; children with appetites receive ambulatory care and caretakers are provided with Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic Foods (RUTF), such as Plumpy’nut, as well as medication and instructions for the treatment at home.  In one year, over 8,000 children were treated with supplementary feeding (those with moderate, acute malnutrition) while 50 were treated with therapeutic feeding (those with severe, acute malnutrition).

HKI also promotes Essential Nutrition Actions (ENA) to teach mothers and caregivers practical activities for infant and young child care. In the past year, over 24,000 pregnant or lactating mothers received counseling on infant and young child feeding. In addition, almost 114,000 people received information on the ENA through radios broadcasts, group discussions, and one-on-one communications.

Back to top

Trachoma Control
In 1999, HKI began integrating trachoma control into school health (see above) projects in Gourma and Komondjari provinces. HKI focuses on introducing good hygiene practices into the daily activities of the primary schools to prevent trachoma as well as other diseases linked to hygiene. Children are taught about trachoma in the classroom, often through skits, and face-washing is promoted as the primary method of trachoma control. As part of our school health program, HKI provides schools with “hygiene kits” (a plastic basin, a plastic kettle to pour water, and soap) so that face-washing becomes a regular habit. Trachoma hygiene activities and lessons are then linked to the school garden activities.

Back to top

Onchocerciasis and Lymphatic Filariasis (LF)
Helen Keller International partners with Handicap International to support the National Program to Eliminate Onchocerciasis and the National Onchocerciasis Control Program in Burkina Faso’s Center and South West regions.  Our efforts to help control onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis (LF) are focused on providing information, education and communication (IEC) materials to community members who, in turn, help control these debilitating diseases. For example, HKI developed a flip chart that is used by the community distributors of Mectizan® (ivermectin) in 336 villages affected by onchocerciasis. An additional 1,500 flip charts were distributed to 2,874 community agents to help prevent lymphatic filariasis in regions where prevalence rates reach 72%.

Back to top

Burkinabè Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ABPAM)
HKI provides ABPAM with financial support and, in conjunction with Catholic Relief Services (CRS), gives annual food donations to the School for the Blind to help disadvantaged students throughout the school year and during school holidays.

Back to top