Dr. Mariam Cissé joined Muso as the Urban Site Coordinator in Yirimadio, bringing with her a wealth of experience from eight years spent in a conflict zone in Mopti, where she worked in the field of nutritional security. Her passion for community healthcare has driven her to engage fully with local populations and have a direct impact on their daily lives.
Dr. Mariam Cissé, Urban Site Coordinator, Yirimadio and Bakorobabougou.
Upon joining Muso, Dr. Cissé took the lead on several key projects, particularly in our collaboration with the Yirimadio and Bakorobabougou health centers. Through enhanced structuring, she contributed to the significant reduction of waiting times for healthcare access. Much of her focus has been geared towards improving the working conditions of healthcare staff in these centers, ensuring regular payment of contributions and family affiliation to social centers. “After assessing the payment situation, I organized meetings with the Community Health Workers (CHWs), after which I advocated to Muso’s leadership to support the Community Health Association (ASACO) in ensuring the payment of CHWs and community health center service providers,” she explains.
One of her major achievements has been the reduction of waiting times for prenatal consultations in particular, now down to one hour, thanks to improved coordination amongst clinic personnel and an increase in the number of consultation rooms from two to four. She also established a dedicated room for obstetric emergencies and implemented a mentoring program for midwives.
Her accomplishments don't stop there.
In 2018, after a work visit to Rwanda to study and adapt their model, she helped strengthen the capabilities of partner centers by improving the technical infrastructure to meet quality care standards. In 2020, in response to difficulties in accessing care—particularly for pregnant women living far from health centers—Dr. Mariam Cissé successfully advocated for the opening of a new community health center (CSCOM) in her intervention area. This initiative significantly improved access to reproductive healthcare, increasing the rate of medically-assisted deliveries and prenatal consultations from 54.8% in 2020 to 74.9% in 2024. Since 2022, the health centers have also introduced specialized consultations, thus broadening access to quality care.
Dr. Mariam Cissé has overcome numerous challenges, including managing a multidisciplinary team and adapting to the varied realities of the households she visits. Her leadership has united the teams around a common goal: to provide quality care to families. Under her guidance, she and her team have transformed practices related to malaria, ensuring that cases are confirmed through biological testing, which has helped reduce treatment based on mere suspicion. She also implemented a preventive malaria treatment program using sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) for pregnant women, achieving a rate of over 80% of women receiving three doses of SP.
To combat diarrhea, she has advocated for providing households with water disinfection products and initiated hygiene training for CHWs to disinfect wells.
In terms of vaccination, she contributed to the launch of a program for children aged 0 to 23 months, achieving a coverage rate of 86% in September 2024. To accomplish this, she participated in the deployment of several community strategies, including vaccination seven days a week and daily access to all antigens, with vaccination sites in markets and public places. “Success relies on the active search for children by CHWs and the active involvement of mothers during campaigns,” she adds.
Today, Muso's partner health centers are recognized in Mali for the quality of their care, particularly in vaccination and family planning. Our team remains committed to support our local community partners to deliver on the promise of universal health coverage.
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