By Janet A. Sesay
The leading mobile company in Sierra Leone Orange Sierra Leone in collaboration with Mama-Pikin Foundation has embarked on safeguarding maternal and neonatal health systems in the country.
In a press conference held yesterday at their head office at Hill Station, Ohina Wansa of Orange Sierra Leone thanked the Mama-Pikin Foundation team for partnering with them in order to ensure women and girls give birth safely without dying.
In her statement, Phina Forna, member of Mama-Pikin Foundation, said she was excited to be part of this project on maternal health for the preservation of the health of expectant mothers in Sierra Leone.
She said the project reflects their commitment to contribute to social goals by engaging and supporting sustainable development in Sierra Leone, adding that their company has an effective foundation strategy with health and women/girls forming its core.
Madam Forna continued that Orange has established a formidable partnership with Mama-Pikin Foundation to reduce maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, adding that maternal mortality continues to claim the lives of women across the country.
She said during the past years their consultations and interactions with Sierra Leoneans have revealed that maternal mortality is a very serious issue.
She furthered that statistics also shows that Sierra Leone remains one of the countries with the highest maternal mortality ratio, adding that there are staggering figures of women losing their lives during pregnancy and these deaths can be prevented through a wide range of interventions such as this project.
She stated that currently together with one of their partners, ICAP of Columbia University identified the Kroo-bay community as one of the communities with the highest percentage of maternal mortality over the years based on the data from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, adding that they have implemented this project in that community for the last two years running and they have recorded no maternal death since their intervention.
Madam Forna also stated that this project serves as a pilot and has contributed to the reduction in maternal mortality at Kroo-bay community through promoting the use of health facility, maternal services, community health education and early detection of pregnancy related risk factors and linkage to care.
The Executive Director, Mama-Pikin Foundation, Dr Fatu Forna in her presentation thanked Orange Sierra Leone for supporting women and said they are excited about the partnership.
She said the commitment and a goal of the Mama-Pikin Foundation is to improve the health of women and children in Sierra Leone, adding that they do a lot of things but they have this one particular thing in focus.
Dr Forna said they were founded in 2008 and she is a Sierra Leonean obstetrician gynecologist who founded the project with her husband, who is a paediatrician.
She said they support health clinics in Sierra Leone, training of doctors, nurses and midwives and they introduced new medication, devices and intervention to improve maternal and child health, working very closely with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and supporting the work of the ministry.
She said they at the ministry produced the very first locally trained obstetric gynaecologist which are doctors taking care of pregnant women and paediatrics, those doctors responsible of taking care of children.
She said it is important because prior to this only a few years ago the country only had three or four obstetric gynaecologist and three to four paediatricians in this entire country of eight million people.
She said to make an impact to save the lives of our mothers and children the country need to train our own doctors in our country, adding that they are very happy to support the Ministry of Health with the training programme.
She furthered that in the work they are doing saving the lives of mothers and new born babies they have to work at community level, health facilities, hospital and society level, adding that the other things they do at the hospital and community health centre level is that they provide delivery buckets and transportation assistance to all women in labour.
She continued that this came about because they know that Sierra Leone has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the entire world but thanks to the work of our midwives, nurses, CHO, the government of Sierra Leone, and the MOHS that has decreased the death rate rapidly over the past few years.
She said one of the main pillars in keeping mothers safe is that they should go to health centres and deliver, they should not deliver at home because if they gave birth at home and they bleed heavily nobody will be able to take care of them, ‘and because of the MOHS has been very focus in trying to get mothers and communities to encourage them to go to the health facility to deliver’.
She said when they started this project in 2008 they went through different districts and speak to women to find out why they were not going to health facilities to deliver, during which they found out that when they are in labour they had to walk three hours to go to the health centre and some women usually gave birth on the road and lose their children, which is why they stayed home to deliver.
She said lot of women did not have money to pay motorbikes to take them to the health centres and they said when they get to the health facility they are ashamed because they don’t have anything for the upkeep of their child.
She said these are the things stated to them by the women and so they decided to intervene by providing Mama-Pikin Foundation buckets; and in the bucket they have a piece of plastic which is to be put on the delivery surface to prevent infection and clean delivery service.
She said the bucket also has a lapper which is used to wrap the baby to keep him or her warm, also the bucket has a bar of soap coupled with the bucket so that after birth when they return home they will use the bucket to fetch water for the baby to bathe so the he or she will be clean.
She said this bucket has done amazing work to get women delivering at health facilities instead of delivering at home, adding that they have given over fifteen thousand women around the country these buckets.
She said it is not only the bucket but for any woman that delivers at the health facility they will pay transport fare ‘to the vehicle or bike that will take you to the hospital’.
She said they have been doing this bucket programme since 2010 but in 2017 they decided to expand to other communities like Grabush health centre and York health centre, of the Western Rural District, and they have three hundred and eighty-seven deliveries in the whole years at these two health centres.
She said they support eight government clinics in six districts in the Western Area Urban, Western Area Rural, Kenema district, Bombali district, Koinadugu district and Kono district.
She said with this partnership with the Orange Foundation they are very thankful as Orange found out about their work and immediately went to them and said ‘this is their area they are very passionate about, saving the lives of mothers, and asked how they can support. ‘We talked about the programme and they immediately decided to support us.’
One of the midwives at Grabush heath centre, madam Nancy Kamara thanked Orange and the Foundation for the good work in assisting the women during child birth.
She said since they were included in this programme they have seen in flows of patients into the health facility.
Foday Koroma CHO Grabush health facility also said they live at Ascension town from a big population, as they cover a population of about seventeen thousand people, including covering Congo town, Banana water, etc.
He said with the support from the Mamie-Pikin Foundation, now a lot of patients go to the facility because of the help.
He thanked both Orange and the Foundation for their support as the population of pregnant women that go to the heath facility has increased.
He said they are also given new drugs that can stop bleeding and that can save lives. He pleaded with them to supply the drugs to other health facilities to save more lives.
Theresa Coker a suckling number thanked the foundation for their support and said it has helped them very much.
Another beneficiary Christiana Kamara also thanked Orange Sierra Leone and the Foundation for their support, adding that the nurses and doctors are taking good care of them when giving birth.
She pleaded with them to add food to their support as some pregnant women do not have food to eat when going to the health facility.
Desmond Spaine, Orange Sierra Leone Foundation Manager, said he was shocked and surprised when they talked about the available mediation that stops and prevents bleeding.
He said he appreciates that medication so much ‘because most pregnant women died because of bleeding either before delivery or after delivering’.
Spaine furthered that he hopes and prays that this medication will be spread across the country so that our pregnant women will be safe.
He said Grabush is part of their survey and it is one of the most vulnerable communities when it comes to maternal mortality, when looking at the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, adding that they are side by side with the Kroo-bay community.
He said for the traditional birth attendant project, the testimonies of the beneficiaries are touching and the act of giving birth cannot be stopped as those that have died should be replaced.
He said their intervention will not stop and they have bonded with the MOHS, ICAP and now with the Mama-Pikin Foundation to turn the table around in Sierra Leone.
He said this cannot be achieved in one day but the structures are going to be built along the line and one of the structures of change is there is light at the end of the tunnel.
He said there will be a time when women are giving birth in Sierra Leone ‘nobody would fear that they would die because Sierra Leone is one of the worst countries for women to get pregnant, adding that from the day of conception until delivery that period of nine months is a disaster, until under five which is disastrous.
He said they will ensure that the table be turned around for the better and this is a project that is closer to Orange Sierra Leone, adding that they are going forward and the partnership should send signals to the rest in Sierra Leone.
He called on other cooperate bodies to come onboard, adding that Orange Sierra Leone cannot do it alone as it is collaboration that makes it better.