Bombali District, Sierra Leone with Health Poverty Action - ‘Mama en Pikin Welbodi’
Last month I had the opportunity to visit Bombali District in Sierra Leone with Health Poverty Action. The organization has been working alongside local communities and health facilities in northern Sierra Leone since 2005.
is currently focusing on the health of expecting mothers and young families. They monitor the progress of mother and child, and are also setting up initiatives to combat child malnutrition
in multiple Health Post Centres throughout the country. What I did not know about Health Poverty Action before this trip is the training scheme they offer locals in becoming community health workers (CHWs) to help facilitate the work. There are currently just over hundred community health workers in the Bombali and Karene districts.
I visited three basic emergency obstetric care (BEOC) posts in Kagbere, Kamaramka and Royeama.
At the Kagbere post I met with the head nurse at the facility where she explained her job role and the impact that Health Poverty Action has had on her community. With the help of Health Poverty Action, the health centres have equipped birthing rooms, cater to adolescents with information, provide workshops and training for health workers and have incentives for mothers to visit the posts for routine check ups.
In Royeama I spoke with senior field officer for Health Poverty Action Daniel Koroma, where we discussed the reduction of maternal death since the intervention and initiatives set by HPA. Each Health centre is open for 24/7 in each catchment area.
The forthcoming ‘Mama en Pikin Welbodi’ project which is the direct translation in Krio, (the national language spoken in Sierra Leone) of ‘Mother and Child’s wellbeing’, aims to encourage communities to be empowered and self sufficient to create long lasting change. This will be done alongside locals and the government to help set up low cost vegetable farms to grow more iron and Vitamin A rich vegetables. Communities will also be provided breeding pairs of chickens, goats and sheep to create community ‘pass on’ schemes for a continuous source of protein.
For me personally, the trip overall was an eye opener to how rural some parts of Sierra Leone is. I only truly understood the value and importance of these health post centres set up by Health Poverty Action once I was there.
If you would like to support the cause of Health Poverty Action and their continued effort to support
maternal and child nutrition in Sierra Leone , please follow the link:
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/act-now-to-support-mums-and-children-in-sierra-leone/
