Helping Women in Liberia Take Charge of Health

When Theresa had complications late in her pregnancy, she knew to go to Zondo Clinic near her home in rural Liberia. She’d learned about safe pregnancy and childbirth from her community’s traditional midwife, who is trained by Americares.    

“Pregnancy is all about life,” says Theresa. “I came because I knew I was in danger. I had come to the clinic for [prenatal care] visits so they can see if there’s any danger sign before delivery.”  

The medical staff at Zondo examined Theresa and took her to the closest hospital, where doctors performed an emergency C-section, delivering a healthy baby boy. Theresa receives ongoing care at Zondo and takes her son there for childhood vaccinations and checkups. 

“Since the Ebola outbreak struck Liberia in 2014, Americares has strengthened its focus on community engagement, outreach and training,” says Director of Africa and Middle East Programs Justine MacWilliam. That includes opening Zondo clinic. “Our work with local partners will ensure the country’s most vulnerable receive access to the health care—and education—they need.” 

During the Ebola epidemic, Americares provided critical medicine, protective gear and medical staff. Now, Americares trains Liberian health workers to prevent and control infections and manage supplies of medicine and supplies—both critical to saving lives during future disease outbreaks.  

Links:

• https://www.americares.org/

Americares Liberia office is integrating maternal, newborn and child health knowledge with supplies provided through our ongoing access to medicines programming. 

Americares has supported maternal, newborn and child health programs in Grand Bassa County since July, 2015. While providing these services, Americares identified fistula prevention, identification and treatment as a major gap in Liberia’s existing health system. Fistula prevention and care is vital to improving the health of mothers and women and to strengthening existing maternal, newborn and child health programming.  

As part of Americares Fistula Prevention and Care Program in Grand Bassa, Americares assembled a Fistula Exchange Visit Team to expose health care professionals in Liberia to the successful fistula repair program at Bugando Medical Centre in Tanzania, which Americares has been supporting since 2010. The Fistula Exchange Visit Team was comprised of  one staff members from Americares (our senior community engagement officer), one staff member from the Grand Bassa County Health Team (the Grand Bassa County health officer) and two staff members from the Liberia Government Hospital (a resident doctor and nurse). At Bugando, the team shadowed the center’s fistula repair team as they performed basic repairs and learned about Bugando’s surgical care standards and complementary psychosocial support programming. 

During their time at Bugando, the Fistula Exchange Team learned how to help health workers in Grand Bassa County identify and respond to cases of fistula as they arise and advocate for increased awareness of fistula within the local health care system. Since its return to Liberia, the Fistula Exchange Team has been working with health workers, particularly nurses and midwives, in Grand Bassa to provide education on fistula prevention and care, including basics on counseling fistula patients prior to, during and post-repair and on the reintegration of patients into the community.   

Because of the Fistula Exchange Team’s visit, Americares Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Program in Grand Bassa has built a foundation for integrating fistula awareness, prevention, repair and psychosocial support into Americares maternal, newborn and child health programming in Liberia. By bringing together representatives from Americares, the Grand Bassa County Health Team and the Liberia Government Hospital, the team learned practical skills and increased stakeholder support for addressing fistula at the county-health-system-administration level, the facility-leadership- and-health-service-delivery level and within Americares own maternal, newborn and child health programming.