The situation in Sierra Leone
The Los Angeles Times has a fascinating report– part one of a two part series– from on the ground in Sierra Leone. Scott Kraft looks at the country’s flailing public health system and the potential impact it could have on the region. It’s a really interesting, in-depth look at a complex and deteriorating situation.
I also recommend this corresponding photo gallery, which chronicles Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Freetown.
Excerpts from Kraft’s piece below, full article here
West Africa is of particular concern to world health officials. With shortages of medicine, trained doctors, reliable electricity, clean water and such basics as sterilized gloves, countries often lack the means to identify and deal with new disease threats.
“As we turn over more and more rocks in more and more places, we find more passages for disease,” said Dr. Scott Dowell, director of global disease detection at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Most aren’t going to be the next HIV or SARS, but it’s pretty hard to tell which ones will and which ones won’t.”
[...] The country has only two pediatricians, and Thorlie is one of four obstetricians. All work at Princess Christian.
Doctors Without Borders set up clinics in Bo, the second-largest city, during the civil war. Now it’s time to begin pulling out and move to other countries in crisis, but Jan van’t Land, the local director, says he’s worried.
“We’re in a difficult situation,” he said. “If we leave, who would take over? It might create another crisis.”
When Koroma took office in 2007, his wife, Sia, launched a global effort to draw attention to the public health crisis. An oil industry chemist before the war, she started a career in nursing during the couple’s years in London. Her evangelical work has brought some help, but she acknowledges that progress has been slow.
“We are faced with so many problems — illiteracy, poverty, youth unemployment and the need for gender empowerment,” she said. “I’m trying to be an advocate for women and children, because they are the most vulnerable.”
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November 19, 2009 at 10:11 am
I was in Cameroon last winter. We visited a village maternity clinic that had no gloves either. Very primitive. My local health clinic had me take a microcscope for them because they had none. ALong with the NGO that I work with there, I’m very frustrated about how to find money “on the ground” . Huge funds don’t seem to fund small organizations. Who can help me with that?
December 4, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I thank Chris for highlighting the devestation in Sierra Leone for ONE members. It wasn’t until we researched and adopted 3 of our children from “Salone” in 2000 that we discovered the complete and total destuction of a country, and most importantly, of its citizens. Our children, from the Kono district, were approximately 4-5 years old and although they spoke only Krio, they immediately began to show us what they had witnessed by acting out “small pekin” (infants) having their limps chopped off and squirming on their stomachs. One of our daughters showed how her father was killed by drawing a finger across her neck. People must understand, our children had never seen a bed (which they preferred the floor at first), never had electricity, running water or food except what was found in the bush while hiding from rebels. 2 of my children made it to a refugee camp in Guinea where the conditions were just as bad. Our daughters later explained how they saw people getting their eyes gouched out if they witnessed someone stealing rice from the camp at night. They urinated where they slept. Our son and his guardians made it to Freetown through the bush only to witness, from a hillside, the Freetown genocide. My husband is an infectious disease physician who has made several trips back to SL to put a clinic in the All As One (NGO) childrens center where orphans live, eat, get schooling and clothes but most importantly feel safe. He has video taped those wonderful guardians who kept our children alive all of those years and shared with us, through an interpreter, what our children had seen and experienced. I ask that the power of ONE.org use our voices to those in SL that feel they have no one. How can we help?