Emmanuel Health Center at Gallo

Health Situation - The Rationale for a new health center at Gallo

The Gallo region of CAR has had inadequate access to healthcare services for generations. Many people have been unable to reach a health facility because the available health facilities are few and far apart.

The limited public transport; mainly motorcycles, will not take sick because they are afraid they may die on the way.  Those who manage to get to a health facility cannot afford to pay for the services due to poverty. Therefore people have not sought healthcare in time, and many people particularly women and children have suffered and died and from preventable illnesses.

                                             The Emmanuel Health Center at Gallo

Maternal and child mortality and morbidity is an enormous health problem and in CAR, giving birth is very dangerous. Five women die of childbirth-related complications every day. The maternal mortality rates is about 1,355 per 100,000, compared with an estimated 30 per 100,000 in developed countries1.  Malaria, anemia, acute respiratory infections and pneumonia, diarrhea, and tuberculosis are the major presenting illnesses at the out patient clinics. Malaria is the leading cause of death in children and adults especially pregnant women. In CAR, like many countries in Africa, the HIV and AIDS pandemic is devastating families, and the nation. Meager family resources are overstretched and the problems are bursting at the seams and family coping mechanisms cannot handle it. The survival prospects for women, children and the youth--and girls in particular--are bleak in CAR.

                                         Patients waiting at Emmanuel