Nurse Saffie, pictured above, walked through the village of Gondama on a very hot February day with the mission of locating young children who were behind on their childhood vaccines and other preventive care. Carrying the cooler provided by UNICEF, Saffie was stocked with vaccines, Vitamin A to prevent Vitamin A deficiency and Albendazole (deworming medication).
It didn’t take long to locate a family with young children needing these preventive treatments: vaccines to prevent vaccine-preventable disease such as measles and pneumonia, plus the every 6-month doses of albendazole and Vitamin A to reduce malnutrition due to parasites and Vitamin A deficiency, which are not issues in the USA, but ubiquitous in Sierra Leone.
This program is one of several new initiatives made possible by grant funds from the One Day’s Wages grant, which was matched by a group of 40 generous RHCI donors in the summer of 2022.
Other successes of the grant:
- 266 Mothers and their babies have participated in the Newborn Home Visit program so far since August, receiving newborn education and medical monitoring.
- 131 Community Health Workers trained on child malnutrition and infant/child warning signs, a preventative training saving the lives of many.
- 50 Children hospitalized in 6 months, nearly all with malaria and life-threatening illnesses.
- Approximately 110 malnourished children supported by RHCI’s Malnutrition program in 6 months
- Over 100 children ages 5-10 received medical care, since July 2022, through the expansion of the Mobile Outreach Clinics. This is in addition to our existing services already caring for children infant to 5 years old.
This grant has helped RHCI develop a new set of impactful programs which we hope to continue into the future with the support of our committed and generous donors. Thank you to everyone who has continue to support RHCI over the years, and to our new donors. This work would not be possible without you. Your involvement is saving lives and making the world a better place.
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Left: CHW Mamie George assists with Vitamin A administration; Right: Nurse Mariama weighing a baby during a Newborn Home Visit.
