PRIMARY AND PREVENTATIVE HEALTH CARE SERVICES
Communicable/non-communicable diseases and their impact:
The impact of communicable diseases in Sierra Leone is immense and in addition to affecting the health of individuals directly, such diseases are also having an impact on the socioeconomics and political dynamics of the country.
Crucial social and civil service sectors for sustained development such as health and education, have seen a marked loss of qualified personnel, most notably due to HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB), Malaria and most recently to the Ebola outbreak. Malaria alone causes more than 17% of all mortalities in the country (http://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-compare/) with women and young children being affected the most.
It is therefore a matter not only of public health, but also of economic interest, to invest in and organize a coordinated strategy to fight major communicable diseases, or at least to bring them under control.
2021 Community Outreach
In 2021, the Khalil Garnem Foundation donated incentives of baby clothes and new born kits to mothers who brought their 5yrs and younger children for vaccines and health check-up at the Lakka Community Health Center, Freetown and Handmaids Catholic and Maternity Clinic, Pendembu.
2020 Covid-19 Clinic Outreach - Masks Distribution, Lakka, Freetown
In 2020, in partnership with Ms. Susan Minah and Dr. Jattu Navo, a community outreach raising awareness on Covid-19 and the importance of mask wearing was done at the Lakka Community Health Center. There was also a distribution of face masks to patients.
SL Medical Mission 2018
2018 Mission Objective: The mission aimed to target approximately 1,500 beneficiaries with medical conditions that are left untreated. Project Location: Cities of Bo and Pujehun, and surrounding villages (Southern province of Sierra Leone)
Objective 1: Provide lifesaving emergency medical and surgical interventions including emergency obstetric care.
Objective 2: Strengthen clinical skills of health care professionals through mentoring and hands-on teaching opportunities from health experts and specialists from across the world.
Objective 3: Train health workers and medical students including nurses and public health students of Njala University in primary and urgent health care as well as certification in BASIC and BASIC DHS (Basic Assessment and Support in Intensive Care for Developing Healthcare Systems) for doctors and higher skilled health professionals.
Objective 4; Donate basic and essential medicines, surgical and medical equipment to Bo hospital and Mercy Hospital to deliver lifesaving general surgical services
Objective 5: Build partnership between the Sierra Leonean diaspora, Cameroonian Diaspora and other International partners
SL Mission 2016
The team of diaspora, international professionals delivered primary healthcare services at an advanced level in three different remote clinics in Bo, in conjunction with national House Officers in training, CHWs, CHOs, Pharmacists and Physicians.
The primary purposes of the clinics were to both provide primary point of contact healthcare for underserved communities, and to identify and refer specific surgical cases to local hospitals where collaborators provided urgently necessary surgeries and surgical interventions for non-urgent specialty cases.
These clinics triaged and provided healthcare to approximately 2059 people in 10 days, from the Districts of Bo, Freetown, Jui, Makeni, Pujehun, Kono, Kenema and others.
From clinic referrals, program collaborators successfully performed 187 surgeries on a variety of urgent and specialty cases at local hospitals.
Prevalent nonurgent themes included treatment of infectious diseases, headaches and joint pain, and prevalent surgical cases included predominantly hernias that had not been repaired because of a lack of specialty surgical resources.
Distribution of donated medical supplies and medicines to:
Bo Gov't Hospital, Bo including a large sterilizing unit that doubles(or triples) the sterilization process compared to what presently exists at the hospital theatre.
Gila Children & Community Hospital Bo: medicines, Medical supplies and equipment
Mercy Hospital Bo: Lab supplies
Children's Hospital Bo: Pediatric orthopedic and general medical supplies
Paramedical School of Health Sciences, Bo: Lab supplies
Emergency Hospital, Freetown – Medical supplies
Rokupar Hospital: Surgical Kits
Pujehun Government Hospital – Medical supplies