History
As is the case in the rest of the African continent, the Senegalese have long used, and continue to use, traditional medicines and rely on traditional healers for medical ailments. However, in 1905, France laid the foundation for health policy in the area, though primarily to serve the French and not the native Senegalese. Later in 1905, Medical Assistance for the Indigenous was created. It was responsible for providing free medical care and health advice to indigenous peoples, promoting immunization, and promoting maternal and child health. Then, after the Second World War, the international public opinion became more critical of colonial policy, and priorities became refocused on child health. Comprehensive programs were put in place to fight against major diseases. Since its independence from France, and from the Gambia and Mali, Senegal has become more involved in major international programs for development and health. Today, access to health care remains very uneven across regions and between different income levels.
Read more about this topic: Health In Senegal
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We aspire to be something more than stupid and timid chattels, pretending to read history and our Bibles, but desecrating every house and every day we breathe in.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–c. 120)