European Union – EMERGENCY: Supporting The Health System In Sierra Leone

On Tuesday 7^th August, The Delegation of the European Union to Sierra Leone along with EMERGENCY NGO, held in Waterloo the closing event of the two projects, carried out in the Western Area and in Port Loko districts.

The projects entitled “Strengthening surgical and trauma health response in two most affected areas by Ebola in Sierra Leone: Port Loko and Western Area” and “Paediatric healthcare in Sierra Leone: a network for service delivery and coordination among Civil Society Organizations Local Authorities Government Institutions”, have been co-funded by the European Union. Their implementation has been facilitated by the close involvement of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS) in collaboration with some national NGOs.

Mr Luca Radaelli, the Coordinator of EMERGENCY Medical Division, said the main aim of the projects was to strengthen the national health system and one of the key result was to create multilateral synergies, fundamental in order to achieve success with these projects. He added that we can proudly say that everyone gave his best and the positive results reached are here to testify all our efforts.

The first project was about a referral network established among Lokomasama, Waterloo Health Centres and EMERGENCY Surgical Centre in Goderich. Through a 24 hours-a-day ambulance service, it guaranteed the transfer and the free of charge treatments of 1,200 traumatised patients living in Port Loko District and Waterloo area, where Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak had the highest incidence of cases.

The second project increased the promotion of children’s health and education, by providing free medical treatments and hospitalization in EMERGENCY Paediatric Centre and by implementing health promotion activities in 60 schools in the Western Area. In particular, this latter activity was addressed to children, teachers and communities through more than 4,000 health education sessions in schools.

Overall, thanks to projects’ activities, over 20.000 consultations were carried out in Lokomasama and Waterloo Health Centres while more than 76.000 ones happened in the Out Patients Department of the EMERGENCY Paediatric Centre in Goderich.

Furthermore, to contribute to the long-term sustainability and endurance of the local healthcare system, EMERGENCY trained more than 450 local staff. Indeed, local health workers were provided with theoretical and practical training where to share knowledge and experience in order to finally encourage professional growth and independence.

The activities related to these two projects involved more than 200,000 people in Sierra Leone.

‘The achievements of the two EU funded projects are impressive and have strengthened people-centred health systems, public health capacity, and emergency preparedness, surveillance and response. This has only been possible through the commitment of all partners involved’ declared His Excellency EU Ambassador Tom Vens.

Freetown, 7/08/2018

For more information, please contact:

Mrs Ljubica Ledenski, EMERGENCY Medical Coordinator, Goderich

Phone: +23277624737

E-mail: mcsierraleone@emergency.it

Mr Julius Foday, Delegation of the European Union to Sierra Leone

E-mail: Julius.FODAY@eeas.europa.eu