Imagine you fell really sick one day and instead of an ambulance coming to get you, or a loved one driving you to the hospital, the only option was for people in your village to physically carry you for hours across difficult terrain to reach the nearest health centre.
This used to be the reality for people living in Kabayaba—a small, rural village of around 2,500 people in central Guinea. Located 24 kilometres by road from the nearest town (Tiro) and health centre, a costly journey which becomes nearly impossible in the rainy season when the surrounding rivers rise, the people of Kabayaba had long suffered from a lack of access to health services. This put villagers at a high risk of epidemics, as historically it took a long time to report disease outbreaks and for help to arrive.
"Previously, when someone fell ill here, we used to carry them on a stretcher to the Tiro health centre. When a woman had to give birth, we would put her on the stretcher, and we'd carry her all the way to Tiro," explains Sékouba Kandé, a resident of Kabayaba village.
Aerial shot of Kabayaba village, Guinea, which is prone to epidemics and becomes almost completely cut off from the nearest town during the rainy season.
Photo: Mouloukou Souleymane Manet/IFRC
Through the Community Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness Programme (CP3), local Guinea Red Cross teams engaged the people of Kabayaba in a ‘community diagnostic’ process to identify villagers’ biggest health concerns and find potential solutions. Knowing that women in the community are typically expected to go along with their husband's wishes, volunteers held separate discussions with men, women, and young people so that each group’s needs and ideas could be heard in an equal and balanced way.
Villagers unanimously decided they wanted to build their own health post in Kabayaba so they’d no longer need to evacuate sick people and pregnant women to Tiro for medical assistance. Guinea Red Cross teams then supported the community to develop an action plan—identifying the steps they needed to take to fund, build, and staff the health post—and come up with a timeline for the works.
Over the course of three years, the Kabayaba community rallied together to build bricks, chop wood, and source all the materials needed to build the health post. People worked in the nearby town, grew crops in the village, and fundraised from the village diaspora to collect the money needed to complete the project.
Women from Kabayaba village, Guinea took up farming in the surrounding fields, growing crops in order to raise money to help build the new health post.
Photo: Mouloukou Souleymane Manet/IFRC
At the same time, the Guinea Red Cross helped the community advocate to local health authorities, who, recognizing the community’s resourcefulness, agreed to assign three medical staff to the health post and fully stock it with medical supplies.
A Guinea Red Cross volunteer with the Community Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness Programme (CP3) helps villagers in Kabayaba develop a plan for finalizing the health centre and securing resources from local health authorities.
Photo: Mouloukou Souleymane Manet/IFRC
Opening its doors in February 2024, the Kabayaba Health Post is now the pride and joy of the community, offering a wide range of health services including check-ups, immunization, maternal and child health, and minor surgery.
“Before, to get help for my high blood pressure, my son had to hire a motorbike to take me to Tiro or Faranah. But now, with this health post, I regularly come here on foot. A lot of people now come for a quick consultation because it's close by and doesn't require a lot of money. We thank God and those who built this health post,” says Fèrai Oularé, Kabayaba resident.
Fèrai Oularé from Kabayaba village enters the newly constructed health post for one of her regular medical checkups.
Photo: Mouloukou Souleymane Manet/IFRC
While the risk of infectious diseases persists in Kabayaba, the presence of the local health post significantly reduces the risk of diseases spreading by ensuring early detection and action of unusual health events.
“This health post plays an important role in preventing epidemics. It is close to the community and allows us to treat patients quickly. Our job is to provide initial care or alert our supervisors in the event of an epidemic,” explains Saliou Oulare, Head of the Kabayaba Health Post.
Alongside continued support from CP3 volunteers, the Kabayaba health post helps strengthen the health system in Faranah by offering local, timely and high-quality medical services and by improving the community’s health resilience to epidemics.
"Today, my family and my community benefit from the health post. If someone falls ill, they go to the health post for treatment and then go home. We've said goodbye to our problems," adds Fatoumata Condé from Kabayaba.
Aerial shot of Kabayaba villagers outside their newly built health post.
Photo: Mouloukou Souleymane Manet/IFRC
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The activities featured in this article are part of the multi-country Community Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness Programme (CP3).
Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), CP3 supports communities, Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and other partners to prepare for, prevent, detect and respond to disease threats.
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