Community Health Workers Training in Sierra Leone
Country: Sierra Leone
Location: West Africa
Project Start Date: January 2008 (Phase 1: Travel to Sierra Leone for Project Assessment, Trainee Identification & Community Meetings)
Project Update: March 2008
In early March, AAPDEP Health Care Team Coordinator Dr. Michelle Strongfields traveled to Sierra Leone in order to begin AAPDEP health care projects in Oloshoro, a coastal community located inside the country's capital, Freetown.
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| Workshop participants look on |
While in Sierra Leone, Dr. Strongfields lead a community workshop on the prevention, identification and treatment of waterborne diseases, worked closely with the local health care committee of Oloshoro to complete a community pediatric health assessment and began laying plans for a community health workers program and clinic.
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| Dr. Strongfields teaching class |
Tens of thousands of Africans die needlessly every year in Sierra Leone from preventable and treatable waterborne diseases like cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery. Many victims are infants and young children who succumb to the dehydration associated with such illnesses.
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| Dr. Strongfields presents medical equipment and supplies to Oloshoro health care committee for community |
According to WHO statistics, an astounding 78% of Africans in Sierra Leone do not have access to clean drinking water. Because of the small numbers of trained medical personnel in the public health sector (only one doctor for every 30,000 people), and the high cost of service, most people are forced to live without access to even the most basic health care services as well. Lack of clean water and health care are major contributors to the high rate of waterborne disease and the poor health generally experienced by Africans in Sierra Leone.
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| Community workshop participants demonstrate their ability to prepare life-saving oral rehydration therapy solution |
AAPDEP, in partnership with the Africanist Movement, is working to change this situation through various health care and clean water initiatives which focus on mass education on the prevention and treatment of waterborne diseases, training community health workers and building community-sized rainwater harvesting systems.