Initiative Bénin 08

Committed to making a lasting and positive impact on the health of Beninese

Imagine living in a country where only a very small percentage of the population have access to health care, where the infant mortality rate is one of the highest in the world, where more than 50% of children suffer from malaria and where there is an urgent need for medical personnel. Unimaginable? Not at all, for this is the case in Benin. It was therefore in the hope of providing basic medical care to the Beninese that, in 2007, medical students from McGill and the Université de Montréal set up Initiative Bénin, a project that allows trainees who wish to take some concrete action to travel to Benin and share their knowledge.

“We are in no way claiming that our actions have changed the morbidity rates in Benin; what we can do is small compared to the sheer extent of the needs. But we believe that by carrying out actions that will blossom and last we may one day hope, for example, to curb the scourge of malaria and Aids,” asserts the group’s spokeswoman and student Mélissa Boileau with conviction

Be that as it may and regardless of its scope, Initiative Bénin has had a significant impact on those who live there. Working at local hospitals under the guidance of Benin doctors, the student participants carried out interventions in the field of general medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics, infectious diseases and ophthalmology and even offered information sessions to help people gain a better understanding of diseases and how they are transmitted.

The students have not only contributed to the greater welfare of the Benin people but have also reaped the benefits of their experience, from both a professional and personal point of view. They were also able to observe the tremendous difference between the Benin and Québec health systems and had to contend with a number of special circumstances. “In the course of a single night, we saw a young mother die from post partum haemorrhaging because the blood bank had gone on strike the day before and, a few hours later, we witnessed a woman in her fifth pregnancy give birth to her first living child,” Mélissa recounts.

It should be pointed out that the people of Benin must pay for every medical consultation, examination and treatment. The residents often put off their doctor’s appointment for as long as possible and by then it is already too late. “We arrived in Benin with huge crates of medicine and medical equipment courtesy of our partners. These supplies enabled us to treat patients who were unable to pay for medical care.”

After sending a dozen students to BÈnin in 2007, the 2008 delegation was made up of 28 trainees and, for the first time, was open to students at the Université de Sherbrooke. In 2009, students from Université Laval and even McGill’s faculty of dentistry joined the group. After their return, the members of Initiative Bénin seize every opportunity to raise awareness among their peers of the glaring needs in West Africa.

“The project is intended as a genuine opportunity for medical students to become more open to international health and the stakes involved,” points out Louis-Xavier D’Aoust, president of IFMSA-Québec.

“Very few people are willing to embark on a project of such scope, which combines human values, dedication and personal development,” confides UniversitÈ de Montréal professor Raynald Garneau.

Initiative Bénin 08