Liberia
Situation Report
Liberia struggled through 14 years of civil war. Throughout the conflict which caused widespread human suffering, more than 250,000 people were killed and 600,000 more were displaced. The war caused widespread human suffering.
The civil conflict ended in 2003 but many people still face challenges. Liberia has the fifth highest mortality rate in the world of children under the age of 5 years. The rate of HIV infection is increasing and access to health care is limited. Liberia's population is nearly 3.5 million, but there are only 120 doctors and 3 dentists in the entire country. There is a great need for professional medical training, dental care, direct primary care and community health education.
Our Work
- We sent our first volunteer team to Liberia in September 2003 after the war ended. During that time, it is estimated that 464,000 people were internally displaced because of the war. Basic services were disrupted and health facilities severely damaged.
- We received a grant for an Emergency Health Care program from the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) in December 2003 and an extension grant in August 2004. Our work with the Emergency Health Care program provided health care services for 590,000 people and provided medical services to more than 160,000 patients.
- Since 2003, we've sent 42 teams of volunteer medical professionals to Liberia. Our volunteers provided medical services, improved access to primary health care and increased the number of local health care providers. We've worked with personnel from the Ministry of Health, as well as, Liberian physicians, nurses and pharmacy technicians. We have a presence in the country, operating a main office in the capital city of Monrovia and a sub-office in Grand Cape Mount County.
- The October 2008 midterm evaluation showed that the project met or exceeded midterm targets for 11 of 14 indicators (78%) in each of the project intervention areas. Of special interest is a reduction in child undernutrition from 27.1% to 20.8%. As a result of collaboration with the President’s Malaria Initiative, more than two-thirds of children under the age of two years are sleeping under long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets. The project has facilitated IMCI training for 42 health professionals and has conducted intensive follow-up and mentoring visits with those trained.
Future Plans
We are in the year 3 of a four-year Child Survival grant from the United States Agency for International Development. Since 2006, we have partnered with the Christian Health Association of Liberia (CHAL) and the Ministry of Health to implement a Child Survival project in Grand Cape Mount County. This project reinforces Liberia's program on Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI), a proven approach to addressing the leading causes of child morbidity (sickness) and mortality (death). The project benefits the entire population (127,124 people) of Grand Cape Mount County. The project addresses five critical areas affecting child health:
- Nutrition (including breastfeeding, maternal nutrition and micronutrients)
- Pneumonia case management
- Diarrheal disease control
- Malaria prevention and treatment
- Iimmunizations
In July 2009, we began implementing the Rebuilding Basic Health Services (RBHS) project. In collaboration with the Liberia Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and our patners ADEN and PMU, the project will increase access to basic health care services in Grand Cape Mount, Bomi and Montserrado counties supported through a grant from John Snow Incorporated (JSI). The project will support 24 health facilities - 20 health clinics and 1 health center in Grand Cape Mount, 2 clinics in Bomi and 1 health center in the Montserrado Counties. The objectives of the program are:
- To improve delivery of Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) by strengthening management of health facilities and outreach services and introducing quality assurance, supervision measures and community financing.
- To facilitate the expansion of selected services to communities by building the capacity of the County Health Teams (CHTs) to implement the BPHS .
- To strengthen capacity of Grand Cape Mount, Bomi and Montserrado CHTs to manage a decentralized health system and the BPHS.
To complement and build on the efforts these projects, we will implement a two-year Community Health Education (CHE) project to help a targeted population of 57,320. Through this project our Liberia staff will integrate to the extent possible Christian imperatives to both heal the sick and make disciples using the CHE model. The project will:
- Implement a Community Health Education model of holistic community development relevant to the context of Grand Cape Mount County in Tewor and Garwula districts.
- Increase the knowledge and skills of MTI Liberia, 20 local churches in Grand Cape Mount County, two partners and other faith-based organizations (where needed) to implement holistic health programs in Grand Cape Mount County and Liberia.
- Establish and/or strengthen a Christian health network(s) in Liberia.
Finally, we will send two volunteer dental teams to provide dental services and preventive dental hygiene education at Trinity Dental Clinic which is operated by Serving in Mission at the ELWA Hospital. We will also send up to five volunteer ophthalmologists to serve with our new partner, Ganta Methodist Hospital Eye Project. Volunteers of the following specialties are still needed for these teams; dentists, hygenists, dental assistants and ophthalmologists.
Our Partners
- The Christian Health Association of Liberia (CHAL) is an ecumenical association developed by the Lutheran Church and established in 1975. CHAL operates today as a consortium of Christian health ministries that collaborate to provide health care services and to procure and distribute medial supplies.
- Serving in Mission (SIM) established Trinity Dental Clinic in 2007. With only three licensed dentists in Liberia, dental care is virtually nonexistent. This year, the SIM dental program will provide desperately needed dental services through its clinic and operate mobile-dental programs in rural areas of Liberia.
- The Ganta Methodist Hospital Eye Project provides specialized eye care services in Nimba County and is the only option for eye care service delivery in the northeastern region of Liberia.
- The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through the Child Survival and Health Grants Program (CSHGP), is supporting rural clinics, community health services and strengthening the capacity of organizations that promote and deliver health care in order to rehabilitate health services in Liberia.
- We have been awarded a sub-grant by JSI Research and Training Institute, Inc. (JSI) to assist in the Rebuilding Basic Health Services (RBHS) project in Liberia. RBHS is supported by USAID and implemented by JSI.
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