Renovations to the Paymar rural health clinic are now complete, well ahead of the rainy season! This project is a powerful example of how long-term partnerships can sustain and strengthen community-led development.
Since opening its doors in 2020, the Paymar Health Clinic has facilitated 173 healthy births, including some of these children featured here!
Andando built the Paymar clinic in 2020. Since then, it has become a vital resource for this remote village of over 1,000 people. From the start, the local health committee has taken full ownership. As Mr. El Hadji Badou Sorna, the committee president, told us:
“When we started activities here, we had a well-constructed clinic but not enough staff. With the initiative of the village, we raised funds to recruit a [registered nurse] to serve our community.”
All smiles! Members of Paymar’s staff and health committee inside the community health clinic.
Thanks to the village’s leadership, the clinic now has a registered nurse (ICP), a midwife, and a pharmacist, enabling them to offer critical services that were never available in the area before.
Paymar’s modest pharmacy will soon be expanded, drastically improving access to medications and supplies in rural villages.
But after several particularly harsh rainy seasons, the original roof needed to be replaced. Rather than using their limited funds for repairs, the committee hoped to focus on expanding the clinic with a new maternity ward, waiting room, and pharmacy. Andando stepped in to help.
The Paymar Health Clinic complete with a new roof and fresh coat of paint. To the left, the community has already started on their expansion.
We provided a new, reinforced roof (now part of our standard clinic design), along with essential medical supplies and equipment. This timely support is helping sustain the momentum the village of Paymar has built to improve healthcare access for their community and six neighboring villages.
Mariama with her healthy baby born right here in Paymar’s Health Clinic.
And just in time. On the very day the new equipment arrived, a woman gave birth in the clinic to a healthy baby boy — a powerful reminder of the vital role these clinics play in Senegal’s rural healthcare system.
