Burkina Faso

En français

HKI has been active in Burkina Faso since 1986 with two field offices in Fada and Koupéla. The main office is in the compound of the Burkinabè Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ABPAM) and a school for young blind. HKI initially focused on supporting micronutrient supplementation, trachoma and onchocerciasis control and provided assistance to ABPAM. In recent years, HKI expanded its activities to include a wide variety of programs closely aligned with national government priorities in nutrition and eye health. Current activities include:

• Vitamin A supplementation >> more
• Nutrition fortification >> more
• Emergency Community Therapeutic Care >> more
• School and community gardening projects >> more
• Orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes >> more
• National school health program >> more
• Onchocerciasis control and integration of Lymphatic Filariasis control >>more
• Trachoma control >> more
• Burkinabè Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ABPAM) >>more

Program Descriptions:

Vitamin A Supplementation: Since 1999, HKI has provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) Nutrition Directorate with support from the Micronutrient Initiative (MI). This work has aimed to increase and maintain high vitamin A supplementation (VAS) rates for children through National Immunization Days (NIDs). The HKI-led partnership has achieved 80% coverage in twice-yearly VAS of children 6-59 months since 2001. Nevertheless, addressing vitamin A deficiency (VAD) effectively and permanently requires interventions on all fronts: supplementation, fortification, and improved dietary intake. As the NID program is phased out, HKI and UNICEF are working with government partners to develop innovative community- and health-center-based strategies to maintain the high coverage currently achieved through the NID program, and to improve VAS coverage for post-partum women. Areas of emphasis include the application of newly acquired skills to routine activities, and the organization of comprehensive twice-yearly Child Health Weeks that incorporate VAS in their activities.

Nutrition Fortification: HKI is a founding member of Burkina Faso’s National Fortification Alliance. With the support of MI, HKI completed a series of studies in 2000-2002 to assess the most appropriate vehicle for vitamin A fortification and the technical capacity of existing factories to ensure fortification. The results from these studies led to a three-year project to fortify locally produced cottonseed oil with vitamin A. HKI provided needed equipment for the two main oil producers and ensured a fortificant premix supply for 6-months. In May, 2008, Burkina Faso officially launched a private/public partnership for mandatory nationwide fortification of cooking oil with vitamin A. Fortified cooking oil could prevent over 20,000 VAD related child deaths each year in Burkina Faso. To learn more about the launch, please click here.

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Emergency Community Therapeutic Care (CTC): This program emphasizes capacity building for front line health workers and district level health managers, as well as strengthening of regional and national policies for malnutrition treatment and prevention. HKI develops and institutionalizes intervention models for treating and preventing malnutrition. HKI’s successful programs in Niger were used as a model in the development of a program to address malnutrition in the Fada N’Gourma and Gayéri health districts of the Eastern Region of Burkina Faso. Other project activities include reviewing current systems for the treatment of malnutrition and helping to develop and disseminate a national protocol for the treatment of acute malnutrition.

HKI also promotes Essential Nutrition Actions (ENA) to teach mothers and caregivers practical activities that they can do in order to help them optimally breastfeed and introduce complementary feeding to their infants and young children. HKI also teaches promoters and health workers negotiation skills so they are more effective in their counseling work.

School and Community Gardening: Since 2001, HKI has promoted the increased production and consumption of vitamin A rich foods through UNICEF-sponsored school and community gardens. Gardens are planted with locally-available vitamin A rich products, such as carrots and green leafy vegetables, and incorporate experimental varieties of orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes. In addition to increasing the consumption of vitamin A rich foods, the project builds the capacity of local actors (province-level officials, extension agents, teachers, and community members) to address community nutrition issues more broadly.

HKI provides province-level staff with training on specific elements of supervision, and instructs agricultural agents on issues related to garden management and dietary improvement. Village animators and teachers work together to share nutrition messages with students and community members. The goal is to strengthen the competence of these individuals as nutrition educators and garden promoters thereby improving the effectiveness and long-term outcomes of the project. HKI liaises with the women’s groups that are responsible for the community gardens and with the primary school students and teachers who care for the school gardens helping to reinforce the ties between communities and primary schools in more than 60 villages.

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Promotion of Orange-Fleshed Sweetpotatoes (OFSP): Beginning with a research-based project, HKI supports the production and consumption of orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes, which are rich in vitamin A, unlike the white-fleshed variety. HKI worked to develop sweetpotato varieties that would thrive in local conditions and that were palatable to consumers. Farmers who were local leaders in the production of white-fleshed sweet potatoes played a vital role by producing seeds in their nurseries and popularizing sweetpotato production in the community. The best-performing varieties were promoted in schools, women associations, and on family farms in several provinces. Many of these sites have developed into centers for the multiplication and dissemination of cuttings to the wider village community. As a result, orange-fleshed sweetpotato production and consumption is on the rise, as well as better nutrition, in many of these provinces.

National School Health: HKI, through a partner consortium with other international NGOs and government agencies, will implement the first phase of a national school health program to cover 25 of the 45 Burkina Faso provinces by 2008. The remaining provinces will be covered in the subsequent phase of the project. The program aims to reduce the vitamin A deficiency and anemia that is prevalent among school children across the country. Research has found that on average 40.5% of school children were anemic and 43.8% had low serum retinol levels.

The program will focus on delivering a standard package of services including micronutrient supplementation of iron and vitamin A and de-worming for all students. Teachers will be trained in the administration and monitoring of supplementation activities. HKI is focusing on improving nutritional and health practices through school gardening and lessons on health, nutrition and hygiene.

Onchocerciasis: HKI ’s program for control of onchocerciasis (river blindness), funded by the Nippon Foundation, focuses on information, education, and communication (IEC) activities that are planned and executed in partnership with the National Onchocerciasis Control Program. HKI has been working with the National Program since 1996 . HKI developed a flip chart that is used by the community distributors of ivermectin in 336 affected villages and actively participates in the annual communication training of the community agents. In 2003, HKI produced and disseminated a film about onchocerciasis control using community actors; the audio track of the film and community discussion sessions inspired by it were broadcast on Radio Gaoua to reach virtually all onchocerciasis-endemic villages in the region.

Since 2003, HKI has piloted the integration of Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) control activities into its onchocerciasis control program, thanks to financial support from the Gates Foundation through Interchurch Medical Assistance. In conjunction with FDC/Save the Children U.S. and Handicap International, HKI works with the national program in regions where LF prevalence rates reach 72%. The strategy for treatment is similar to that for onchocerciasis, allowing HKI to smoothly integrate promotion and sensitization for the two diseases in their shared region (Gaoua) as well as to ensure coverage for LF in Ouargaye District, which is not affected by onchocerciasis. A total of 1,500 flip charts have been distributed among 2,874 community agents to help prevent LF; these community agents benefited from a joint HKI/Handicap International/FDC training.

In 2008 HKI will continue its efforts to support to integrated control of Onchocerciasis and Lymphatic Filariasis and add vitamin A supplementation to the distribution strategy. This new project, supported by the European Union, builds on lessons learned from earlier projects and will implement new community mobilization strategies.

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Trachoma: In 1999, HKI began work in trachoma control by integrating it into school health projects in Gourma and Komondjari provinces in the Eastern Region. HKI focuses on introducing good hygiene practices into the daily activities of the primary schools to prevent trachoma as well as other diseases linked to hygiene. HKI implemented a pilot project in 16 elementary schools in the Komondjari province to develop a school health curriculum that includes trachoma control. HKI recommends including lessons on trachoma in the basic teacher-training to accelerate the implementation of better practices through out the country. HKI is working with the Ministry of Basic Education and Literacy for this curriculum to be integrated into the national curriculum.

Burkinabè Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ABPAM): HKI provides ABPAM with financial support and, in conjunction with CRS, gives annual food donations to the School for the Blind to help disadvantaged students throughout the school year and during school holidays.

Program Partners:

• APOC
• ABPAM
• Catholic Relief Services
• The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation
• ECHO
• European Union
• FDC/Save the Children U.S.
• The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Foundation
• Government of Burkina Faso
• Government of the Republic of China ( Taiwan)
• Handicap International
• The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
• Interchurch Medical Assistance
• The McKnight Foundation
• The Micronutrient Initiative
• OFDA/USAID
• PLAN
• Terre des hommes, Lausanne
• UNICEF
• WHO

Key Staff

• Ann Tarini - Country Director
• Zaoro Touaoro - Food Fortification Technical Agent
• Jean-Celestin Somda- Nutrition Program Coordinator
• Frank Boukary Ouedraogo-School Health Coordinator
• Anastasia Navele- OFDA Project Coordinator
• Issa Lompo- Associated Ocular Care Coordinator
• Olivier Veramba- Garden Project Coordinator
• Kuilga Marc Yaméogo- School and Community Nutrtion Project Coordonnator, Koupéla
• Judith Konyaole - Administrator

Last updated: January, 2008