Restoring Healthcare to Women and Girls in Liberia

As you can see from the picture above, work continues for the construction of our new Medical Center.  We have completed the security fence, which completely surrounds the Medical Center property, allowing for materials to be properly secured during construction.  Brick production will continue as fast as possible during the rainy season with completion of the facility expected late next year. All bricks are being made onsite - only about 55,000 to go.  

Architects from our construction partner, Building Goodness Foundation (BGF), are planning to visit Liberia in July to review progress and discuss building details with our Liberian contractor, LUCE.    One goal is to transfer key building skills to as many local young men as possible during this construction project.  BGF is planning to bring construction teams during critical phases - foundation, roof, plumbing, electical/solar, finishing.   

A Community Garden Workshop was held in May to teach basic skills. Portions of the garden are beginning to produce crops regularly, helping to feed our workers. Many plots are available. The local community is being encouraged to participate.  

Partnering in TeleHealth

Earlier this year Dr. Chris began working with the University of VA (UVA) Center for Telehealth to explore potential applications in Liberia.  The UVA Center for Telehealth draws from its broad experience in providing access to healthcare in rural communities to foster global relationships to treat illness and to advance healthcare education in a growing number of places around the world.  In addition to the link between Kakata, Liberia and Charlottesville, VA a link has also been set up with Mbarara University Science and Technology (MUST) in Uganda. 

For the past year UVA has been working with colleagues in Uganda to create a Global Classroom for collaborative research and training.  This collaboration takes many forms, which include Resident Case Conferences, guest lectures, and undergraduate research exchanges.  Providing these resources to our clinic in Kakata offers huge potential to provide local continuing education courses over the Internet, to provide access to medical information from digital medical libraries, and to facilitate exchanges between doctors, nurses, clinics, hospitals and other centers of medical expertise.

Last month several patients benefited directly from consultations on "difficult to treat" wounds.  Many wounds seen in Liberia are severe, healing poorly or not at all.   Not only is Dr. Chris able to consult with colleagues remotely in order to resolve these difficult cases, but her ever-expanding team of Community Health Workers also have been able to share local treatment methods used in Liberia with the staff in VA.  These intereactions are providing new insights to the challenges and solutions for treatments where resources are limited to local sources.    Meetings and live presentations are currently scheduled twice a month.    

Our accountant, James, has been invited to VA to participate in technology training in October, all expenses paid.  He is currently working to computerize all of our records and teach the Community Health Workers how to enter patient data.

What's Next

It's rainy season, so the focus moves closer to Kakata as roads flood and transportation becomes diffcult.   There is more time for hiring and training.  Mission teams are now visiting two or three times a month bringing critical medical skills and dental resources. Operating funds are short. We need your help to keep growing - for staff, medicine, supplies, and fuel.  

Links:

• Healthy Women, Healthy Liberia Website