Muso’s first rural site officially launched on April 24th to serve 24,000 people across the communities of Tori.
Tori, in the district of Bankass, Mali, is the first of eight expanded health centers Muso will open in 2016 across the rural district. This expansion will bring Muso’s rapid delivery health care model to a region with some of the lowest rates of health care access in the country, allowing Muso to reach over 120,000 people in rural Mali by the end of 2016.
Celebrating with the Muso team at the grand opening was the Deputy Director of the National Program for the Fight Against Malaria, Tori’s mayor, the village chief, and one thousand excited community members. The occasion marks the first time the regional governor – or any acting governor – has ever visited Tori. After the ribbon cutting ceremony and some celebratory dancing, Muso led a small delegation on a guided visit through Tori’s brand new health center. The facility includes consultation rooms and a maternity ward, and is unlike anything previously seen in the region.
Bankass has some of the lowest rates of health care access in Mali, ranging from 6% to 17%. Only 10.6% of children under five currently receive effective treatment for malaria within 24 hours of symptom onset, contributing to the 111/1,000 under-five mortality rate. (1)
Throughout the past year, Dr. Amadou Beydi Cisse, Muso’s rural site coordinator, has led mobilization and integration efforts to establish a close working relationship between the Muso team, local authorities, and community members.
Tori also serves as Muso’s pilot site to test operational and research protocols in advance of our upcoming scale-up and embedded randomized controlled trial. With the launch of this randomized controlled trial, we will quantify the impact of our proactive health model in a rural setting, providing critical answers for governments to adopt our model and bring lifesaving healthcare to millions of the world’s most vulnerable people.