By Alhaji Haruna Sani
Officials launching the project at the Atlantic Lumley Hotel
With funding from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days
Save the Children in Sierra Leone would be implementing a $5.1 million dollar
meant to target about 200,000 beneficiaries in by improve access to and use of
quality maternal, newborn and child health nutrition services in Pujehun and
Port Loko.
The project seeks to reduce maternal, neonatal and child
mortality, stillbirths and morbidity in the country by strengthening the
capacity of district health management teams and healthcare providers.Director of Operations, Save the Children SL, Dr. Modupeh
Taiwo underscored that the project is geared towards strengthening health
systems, and Save the Children is the lead implementing partner.She added that the project will target two districts namely;
Pujehun and Port Loko Districts, 62 health facilities, 31 each from the two
districts, and that about 200,000 people will benefit from the scheme.She went on to state that the project has the component of
strengthening child health and nutritional facilities, as well as community
behavior change wherein the communities are empowered to be able to go to the
nearest health facilities and demand healthcare services for their children.According to Madam Taiwo, there is also the component of
building the capacity of health workers to be able to provide quality health services,
as well as supply them with the required equipment and medications needed for
the treatments.She explained that they had had series of discussions with
the health ministry and medical drug store to ensure that there is a correct
drug list and the volume that’s required.“To ensure that the project rolls out successfully, we also
have to focus on building the capacity of the health facilities, as most of the
facilities are not in a very good shape that will enhance quality so we will
renovate some of those healthcare facilities for quality delivery,” she
mentioned. She concluded that they will ensure that healthcare workers
in those designated facilities are properly trained on how to avert child
mortality and nutritional challenges among children in those districts, noting
that it is key to the success of the project. “The project will also ensure that lactating mothers can
easily take care of their babies through good quality beast-feeding as well
provide the appropriate nutritional values to infants,” she ended.Kenneth Pambu, Welfare Self-reliance Manager of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saint stated that in trenches, the church is
providing the sum of $5.1 million dollars to Save the Children in order to help
salvage healthcare mortality and nutritional issues affecting children. He said the funding was a competitive one which was won by
SCI Sierra Leone and Uganda.He clarified that the gesture is a five year project but will
be in trenches, stating that in the first year, 1.5 million dollars will be
disburse aiming at strengthening health systems and protect pregnant women from
losing their infants during delivery. He added that the project also seeks to
help pregnant women practice good medical hygiene.He assured that the project will help Save the Children provide
quality medication, provide training to medical practitioners, as well as
collaborate with the Ministry of Health, who will provide guidelines on their
operations. Tom Sesay, Director, Reproduction and Child Health MOH,
underscored the significance of the project, adding that the project aligns
with the vision and objective of the ministry to improve on the health of every
Sierra Leonean in the country. He furthered that the project focuses on maternal child
health, interventions, as well as ways of improving maternal child mortality in
the country. He noted that the project will help build the capacity of
healthcare workers, and well as institute quality healthcare programs.Sesay also mentioned that the project will help capacitate
local NGOs for them to be able to replicate similar projects.He applauded the Latter Day Church and Save the Children for
collaborating in order to address health challenges in the country.
He indicated that there role as a ministry is to establish a
steering committee that will be monitoring the successful implementation of the
project, thereby creating an impact on the maternal and child health outcomes
in Port Loko and Pujehun Districts.
