Restoring Healthcare to Women and Girls in Liberia

It is the dry season and we are so busy. Active outreach through the community watch forum programs on Liberian radio continues to increase awareness. 

Over the past 3 months a regular rotation schedule through the communities has been established - providing one day of community education, health checks and specific patient visits in the community, followed by one day of patient visits at the clinic.  Although the clinic target is 35 patients per day, typically 40-45 are showing up on the days the clinic is open.  Support by Community Leaders continues to grow with improvements in the community meeting places to support Health Education and new benches for the patient waiting area at the clinic. 

In January 280 patients were served in the clinic, including 12 pregnant women, 5 diabetics, 2 patients with epilepsy, and many more with high blood pressure and challenging wounds.  In February we saw 265.  During 2013 a total of 2,267 patients were treated in the clinic, 755 of which were children.  Another 11,680 community members participated in Heath Education Programs in their communities and 8,538 patients, 4,288 of which were children, participated in our deworming program.   

Partnering activity has continued to expand shifting focus from just receiving and distributing donated materials to hosting medical team members.   The Hands of Hope Foundation, visiting Kakata offered valuable continuing education for Dr. Chris and the nurses.  Dr. Duane Spaulding, Medical Director at Heart to Heart Haiti and a HWHL Board Member, made his first visit to Liberia.  Other visitors came from Virginia, Canada and China. 

A team of architects from our Construction Partner, Building Goodness Foundation in Virginia, spent a week with Dr. Chris in January assessing our building site and evaluating available construction methods and materials. Almost $300,000 had been committed to the facility construction project.  We expect the site plan and drawings to be completed in the next few weeks as final details and budgets are worked out with the local construction contractor, potential materials providers in Liberia and the US, and solar experts from Washington state.