Senegal

Summer Update 2019 - Senegal

Now in its second year, through our partnership with World Renew, the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) program in Senegal is seeing a decrease in deaths due to malnutrition and/or HIV and AIDS-related illnesses in the community of Linguere.

 In the past six months, 137 orphans and vulnerable children, 257 parents, and 54 newborn orphans were directly supported by the program. Some of these orphans have lost either one or both of their parents to AIDS and while others lost their mother during childbirth. Vulnerable children are children of parents who suffer from HIV/AIDS. World Renew supported vulnerable households by providing them with nutritious food and support for the costs of medical care, a new community vegetable garden in Dioumanang, counseling for caregivers, and milk supply for newborn babies without a mother.

This year, the team introduced a new activity to the group of PLWHA (People Living with HIV/AIDs)  which is a support-group for women who have recently  found out they have HIV/AIDS, known as ‘cercle des femmes’. They have organized sessions for smaller groups of people in various  villages where they can share experiences and learn from the staff and long-term group members. 

 CRWRF funds half of this project and the other half is supported by the Artevel Foundation. We are thankful to walk alongside organizations to help vulnerable women and children who suffer because of the effects of HIV/AIDs.

Success Stories from Senegal

“I’m one of the parents whose children benefit from the payment of tuition for the private school by the World Renew/SLDS (Lutheran Services for Development in Senegal) program. After a meeting of the parents of students at the school, we, the parents who benefit from this program, decided together to go thank the SLDS team and their partners for all the support they have given us and our children. We are people with few resources and we had never thought to enroll our children in such a school. Each 10th day of the month many students bring home a note that remind their parents they should pay the monthly tuition, but our children never bring us a note. There are even neighbours who have asked us how we manage to pay for the school with our limited resources. We are very grateful for all your support. Today, we have seen a positive change in the behaviour of our children; they like school more and work hard to get good grades. Actually, that is the result of your (SLDS) advice, instructions and motivating words that you have given during visits to our homes, group talks with parents. Thank you very much.  We pray the Lord will continue to bless you”.

“One day I took my 12 year old, who was sick so often, and I was informed that she has HIV. They gave us ARVs but there was no improvement at all. Thus, after doing medical tests, the doctor changed her treatment several times. After a while, she became seriously ill and was even hospitalized. The attending physician found that none of the antiretrovirals available in our area suited my daughter’s body. The doctor referred us to an HIV specialist in Dakar. I went to the office of Mariame and Rose to explain our predicament. I was worried because our family could not pay to go see the doctor in Dakar, but she was very ill. Mariame and Rose reassured me and helped pay for the  prescriptions and then gave me the money for transportation to Dakar. The next day I took my daughter to the big city to see the specialist. He prescribed her other ARVs and since then my daughter has been well. She has even gone back to school. I say thank you from the bottom of the heart, without this program my daughter would not have survived because I did not have the resources to get her the medicine she needed.”

“Four months ago I delivered twins prematurely (7 months). They had to stay at the hospital under observation of the pediatrician so they would be healthy. Unfortunately, one of them passed away after a week. The days passed and the hospitalisation costs rose and I couldn’t pay for it anymore. I went to ask for help at the hospital and the social services assistant referred me to the SSP project. I went to see them with the note from the assistant and the team received me very kindly. They explained that they ran the World Renew program that supports orphans. But because the case of my surviving child was a special one, they took care of the costs of his medication and formula milk. Today, he is home and is doing well. I am very grateful for the World Renew programme because without it, I would also have lost my other child. I pray for the staff and the World Renew project, that God will help you in your work.”