I am Baté Gnintidema, communal coordinator of the Toucountouna health mutual.
The commune of Toucountouna, located in the northwest of Benin, is one of the poorest communes in the country.
The inhabitants have difficulty in accessing health care. Many of us are unable to pay a prescription of 5000 CFA (7,5 euro/year).
Unfortunately, many are forced to hand over the little they have and receive less medicines.
To alleviate this problem, the government's policies never cease to propose solutions, like with the creation of project ARCH: Assurance aux Renforcement du Capital Humain.
The Toucountouna mutual health insurance is part of this: A system set up to facilitate access to healthcare by sharing the risks of illness. An insurance organisation that subsidises your health costs by up to 60%. It fights against the bad reception of mutualist patients. There is an expression that says, "A patient who is well taken care of is already half-cured".
But unfortunately, despite our awareness campaigns in collaboration with the Sekou Na Tout group from Belgium, many of us in Toucountouna still do not understand the advantages of joining a mutual insurance company, since only 6% of our population are mutualists. In addition, the mutual benefits very little from the policies of the commmune.
As health is a crucial sector for development, we appeal to the authorities at all levels to get involved in saving the population of Toucountouna.
We invite the population of Toucountouna to become aware by joining the Toucountouna mutual health insurance fund.
Translation done by Pietro Betlem, student in translation at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Edited: Andru Shively (VUB)