Dirk Booy and Esther Lehmann-Sow: "Many things have been achieved, but let us not be satisfied just yet!"

From 23 to 26 March, the Global Director of Field Operations, Dirk Booy, accompanied by Esther Lehmann-Sow, Regional Leader for the organization in western Africa, visited five ADPs in Mauritania  three of which are Aleg, Bababé and Dar El Barka.  Following is a report and photos of this visit and meetings with communities in World Vision’s programs.

For his first visit in Mauritania, the Global Director of Field Operations, Dirk Booy, accompanied by  the Regional Leader of WARO, Esther Lehmann-Sow, met religious leaders (photo), in the evening of his arrival. A "fruitful" meeting : "When I arrived in Mauritania, a 100% Muslim country, I had to meet religious leaders. We have a common, compassionate objective to make a positive change in the well-being of children" he explains in an interview for World Vision Mauritania's newsletter. Beyond, the meetings included visits to various community development projects from Nouakchott to Dar El Barka, via  Aleg, Boghé, Bababé or Tchidé.

In Aleg, Minetou is one of the 5 managers selected this March to manage the community shop in the district of Medina – the shop was opened in 2012: "Since we started work with World Vision, we notice that our children go more regularly to the school, and they have much better health" she says. "We began with 200.000 ouguiyas, but today we have more than a million in our savings. We divide profits to provide for  the needs of our children. Even very poor families in the district, who may not necessarily be part of the community shop, the mothers come to take stuff here, and they pay off when they raise money " she continues, proud to put forward the social cohesion which prevails through this project.

In poultry project which is a union of 27 women's cooperatives of Sir Nasr in Aleg, sponsored by World Vision, there is a double objective: diversify the local production, and provide white meat to improve dietary diversity for good health.  " World Vision financed us with 500 chicks to launch our project; since then, we bought the land where we develop our activities, and our profits are regular " explains the president of the union of cooperatives. The women’s children have benefitted immensely from this poultry project. " My two daughters are students in Senegal; I send them money from here with my share of profits from this project "proudly explains one of the women. " Our children are well, and are lacking nothing "adds another woman.

26 women grouped together in Tchidé to start up a savings group in June 2014. On meeting them, they were eager to show the transparency and the rigor which governs their structure. " Here is the treasurer, both managers, and three who hold the keys of the safe; you see, there is such a clear division of tasks, to ensure transparency and rigor in our group" asserts the general secretary of the savings group. A healthy management of the group has improved the economic situation of these women, and in turn, of their children.

"The children travel 6-7 kilometers from here to get to school; Between school transport and supplies, it was very difficult for us to provide for our children to go to school.  Today it is better " says Salimata, one of the women. Each of the women contributes 500 ouguiyas at the most a week. " We wanted to include everybody, and we are conscious that some are more deprived than others. So, even this 500-ouguiyas contribution can be paid several times " explains the general secretary, Aminata Gaye.

In Bababé, the fortified cereal project implemented by ANED, and financed by World Vision Canada, already shown effective signs of fighting child malnutrition. Created one and a half years ago, the impact is obvious on the reduction in cases of anemia which moved from 77 % in 10 villages and 3,828 women benefitting from the project,  to 64 % today. The rate of infant malnutrition is falling too, moving from 23 % to 17 %. "We couple the sale of these fortified cereals with regular sessions of awareness on the hygiene, Ebola and good breast-feeding practices" explains Aïssata Bâ, leader of the Bababé project, and an important leader of the community.

The grouping of three schools by four villages of Dar El Barka municipality took place in 2012. "Before the grouping, the ratio of pupils vs teachers was very low in four villages, and the rate of admission of the pupils to high school was mediocre. The grouping enabled an admission increase to the 6th class of 70% , with more pupils being admitted to high school and with increased reading capabilities " one of the primary school teachers indicated. " The Ministry of Education had evaluation tools to measure the progress of education; however the introduction of World Vision’s FLAT tool, more specifically its measurement, has helped the Ministry as it is totally focused on the aspect of reading and understanding, which are the bases for education. Before the FLAT tool, we did not know well how to measure  progress or identify the gaps that needed to be filled in this domain " explains the inspector of Education Oumar Bâ.

Progress in the methodology has been observed, which makes pupils from this high school grouping to be amongst the best. However there are limits too observed, in particular in the quality of education. "We have no convincing element which assures us that this grouping experiment is a success. “All the elements which were presented to us point in the right direction, as elements of process: an increase of the number of children admitted in high school, an increase in the number of teachers and a reduction in the rate of school drop-outs… They are very good indicators in the process of improvement of the school education system, and it is good; but we know in reality nothing of the quality of the education the children have received…especially whether or not they can read and write" moderated Dirk Booy.

The health insurance company of Dar El Barka provided services to 1,111 people from October, 2013 till September, 2014, among which 400 were children. The health insurance has been operational for the past three years now, benefitting 4,545 people in the municipality, covering 27 villages. " About twenty villages are not yet covered, but in our action plan for 2015-2018, we plan to actively sensitize the remaining villages. In order to adequate meet the health needs, we shall also have to open a community pharmacy, and have more male nurses (we currently have 3 covering six health posts" asserts the president of the health insurance company.