Healthcare in Togo
Carolyn Carere — Arthur, ON
In Togo, healthcare is so very different from Canada. Going to the hospital costs 800 francs before you even see a doctor.
A large number of the poor choose to go to the bush and use traditional medicine to avoid the cost. I was told that often the medicine helps them or it kills them. Often a child is born in hospital. The cost is between $100 to $300. The majority can’t pay so they leave in the middle of the night.
The downside is that the child will not get a birth-certificate. Bloodletting and the use of ants to close a wound is commonplace. When a person breaks a leg the local doctor will mend it by putting on two branches. He will break a chickens leg, splint it and tell the person that when the chicken walks, so can they. I saw a clinic that looked after fifty AIDS patients offering mostly counseling. Ten were between five and ten years old. The clinic did not even have a working blood pressure cuff. Amazing.
Local herbal medications are commonplace because people can’t afford modern medication. It takes a person three years of schooling after high school to become a nurse. Most are male. The sad thing is there are no jobs. Often they try to open a clinic with the help of local churches. I saw more malnutrition in two weeks than I have seen in thirty years of nursing. The common worm is also a problem. Schools routinely give out the medication to combat the problem.
In a nutshell, Togo is in need and there are very many people willing to help. Thank you, donors, for responding to this need.
