An EEG for Village Health Works

For more than a decade, Dr. Stephanie Engel has worked closely with the team at Village Health Works, helping build and strengthen mental health services in Kigutu, Burundi. Although health challenges mean she can no longer travel to Burundi as she once did, she remains deeply connected to the work and to the patients served there.

Dr. Stephanie is now supporting from afar by focusing on a key priority for strengthening health care at Kigutu Hospital and the Women’s Health Pavilion: securing an EEG machine.

In recent years, Village Health Works has seen a growing number of children with seizure disorders. Many cases can be treated effectively with medication, but when seizures are atypical or medications do not work, doctors need an EEG to understand the type of epilepsy and determine the right treatment.

At present, patients must travel to cities in the country like Bujumbura or Rumonge for this test. For many families, the cost of travel and testing makes that impossible. As a result, some children are treated without a clear diagnosis, and inevitably some of these treatments fail.

One of those patients is Amandine, an eight-year-old girl from a rural village near Kigutu. Doctors recommended an EEG several years ago to better understand her seizures, but her family could not afford the trip to the capital. Without that information, her care has been difficult to guide. 

Amandine’s Story

Amandine is eight years old and lives in Matana, a rural community in Bururi Province, Burundi. She has lived with epilepsy since early childhood.

When she was a young child, Amandine experienced repeated seizures. The local health centres near her village were not able to control them, and the family struggled to find care that could help.

In 2023, Amandine was finally brought to Kigutu Hospital at Village Health Works. The medical team started her on anti-epileptic medication and recommended that she receive an EEG in Bujumbura. The test would help doctors understand the type of epilepsy she had and guide the best treatment.

But the trip to the capital and the cost of the test were beyond what her family could afford. The EEG was never done.

When Amandine returned to Kigutu Hospital in 2024, her seizures had become more frequent. Treatment was restarted, but the underlying problem remained the same: without an EEG, it was difficult to determine the precise type of epilepsy and adjust her care.

Last month, Amandine arrived at the hospital in critical condition. She had been experiencing continuous seizures that eventually led to a coma. The team was able to stabilise her with emergency care, but years of uncontrolled seizures had already caused significant neurological damage.

Today, Amandine can no longer sit or stand on her own. She cannot walk, and for the past six months she has been unable to speak.

Her story reflects the barriers many families face in rural Burundi. When specialised diagnostic tools are far away and unaffordable, even treatable conditions can become life-altering.

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Village Health Works currently cares for more than 1,000 epilepsy patients, including hundreds of new cases each year who would ideally receive EEG testing before treatment begins. 

Having an EEG machine at Kigutu Hospital would allow the clinical team to diagnose seizure disorders more accurately, choose the right medications, and monitor patients locally without requiring families to travel long distances.

If you would like to support this effort, your contribution will help Village Health Works purchase and implement an EEG machine and train the clinical team to use it.