Communities Fighting Ebola in Urban Sierra Leone

We have been busy!

As we come out of the Ebola response phase of our work we are now focusing on working closely with the community advocacy group that did so much during the outbreak. Tok fo Pikin Welbodi are a collection of volunteers that are passionate about improving child and maternal health in Eastern Freetown. This month we trained members of this group in data collection and worked closely with them to undertake a survey of 11 primary health centres and the people they serve. This not only provides vital data for our work and future Global Giving funded projects, but strengthens the relationship Tok fo Pikin Welbodi has with these facilities and provides skills to the volunteers that can be used to help their group become more effective. We shared these findings with the government’s District Health Management Team and will use it to inform site selection for a large project that creates women's groups to address maternal and child health issues.

We have also been training Tok fo Pikin volunteers to lead Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) approach groups, a great way of helping communities tackle health issues. The project trained a total of 50 women facilitators and five of these were from Tok fo Pikin Welbodi.  All participants received training on facilitation skills to implement PLA group meetings in the communities we serve. As well as learning about the methodology, the volunteers learnt leadership and training skills. 

In the last report we told you about the TB clinic we were planning on building at a local primary health unit, this has been progressing well and has now been approved by the Ministry of Health and we look forward to keeping you up to date as we move forward with its construction!

All this was made possible by Global Giving and the amazing supporters that reached us through the site - Thank you all! 

Until next time!

Khadija, Sebastian and the Welbodi Team.