More than 112,000 people can benefit from the information and healthcare promotion project in the Port Loko district.
October 17th marks the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, a key date to remember that, despite experiencing the greatest period of economic and technological development in history, millions of people around the world lack access to the basic resources needed to live with dignity. The United Nations recognizes a number of interrelated factors that perpetuate poverty, one of which is limited access to healthcare.
This harsh and unjust reality is found in Sierra Leone. In this country, the population faces a healthcare system with significant violations that affect their right to health, a situation that is exacerbated for those living in rural areas. In the Port Loko district, providing quality healthcare is particularly difficult, both in hospitalization and outpatient care. In this context, St. John of God Hospital in Lunsar, which serves this district, conducted a diagnostic study between 2018 and 2019 to design a strategy that would allow it to focus its activities on the prevention of prevalent diseases and health promotion, with special attention to women and children under 5 years of age.
Therefore, the objective of this project, in which Juan Ciudad NGO collaborates, is to bring information and healthcare to places where it is not available, in accordance with the needs a person may have throughout their life, as established by the World Health Organization (WHO). To carry out this necessary task, the health center has a multidisciplinary Primary Care Team composed of nursing professionals, specialists in maternity and prenatal care, neonatology, HIV, tuberculosis, and nutrition.
The first step in bringing this information to the citizens of Port Loko begins at the Hospital. This is where healthcare personnel are trained, providing them with the knowledge and tools they need to later monitor and record the population's progress in relation to the awareness and prevention campaigns carried out both at the hospital's facilities and in the communities. This outreach work is carried out through radio broadcasts, community visits, workshops, and distribution of medications and preventive materials for common diseases.
More than 112,000 people are expected to benefit directly from this strengthening of the district's healthcare network, and nearly 40,000 indirectly, with a particular impact on children under 15, an age group that accounts for nearly 68,000 people in the area.
The significance of this project stems from the fact that before its implementation, the population did not receive continuous health promotion services. They also lacked access to information on such diverse and essential health areas as disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care at the various levels of healthcare. As a result, the strengthening of the Port Loko district's health services network contributes to the achievement of SDG 3 by guaranteeing the right to health for the vulnerable population and enabling the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God to professionalize its external work.
Network strengthening envisions four basic components to be developed in a five-year action plan, launched in May 2020:
- Strengthening the health system through improved capacity, management, and coordination at the primary and community care levels among the entities that will comprise the network: St. John of God Hospital and the health units in 31 communities in the implementation area. And the construction of a new health unit in one of the communities lacking this service.
- Childhood malnutrition prevention program (feeding of infants and children under 5 years of age), through training of community workers and primary health care personnel as Program Counselors to provide them with the knowledge, skills, and tools to support mothers, fathers, and other caregivers in optimally feeding their infants and young children.
- Program to improve access to the health system through the creation of a revolving fund for pregnant women, which will be used to purchase health insurance so they can access maternal and general health services during pregnancy.
- Program to improve access to water through the construction and repair of four water wells in two communities in the project's intervention area.
- During the first two years of the project, between 2020 and 2021, Juan Ciudad has received support from the Probitas Foundation, the Murcia City Council, and Sector 3.
