Location: Gbarnga
Situation:
Liberia is emerging from a fourteen year conflict which has cost 250,000 lives, caused the displacement of half the population, and completely devastated social and cultural life as well as the infrastructure and economy. The ceasefire agreement, signed in 2003 by the different factions, and the deployment of a civilian and military mission by the United Nations have engaged the country in an attempt at peace and reconstruction, consolidated by a national programme to demobilise and disarm the former fighters. The presidential elections held in October 2005 are a crucial step towards the political stabilisation of the country and, for the international community, are an important challenge to make this transition towards full and lasting autonomy successful.
Activities:
The main beneficiaries of Doctors of the World's (DoW) work are, on the one hand, civilian populations, with a particular emphasis on children under 5, pregnant women, those affected by sexual gender based violence (SGBV), trauma and discrimination and those with mental health problems. On the other hand, clinics, country health teams and the community health committees also represent futher beneficiaries. Their estimated amount is 190 000.
Concerning the Clinics:
• Offering quality medical healthcare free of charge to our catchment population
• Weekly medical supervision and on-the-job training in 9 of the clinics and daily supervision and training in CB Dunbar clinic, the principle healthcare facility based in Gbarnga, the main city of Bong County. CB Dunbar is more like a small hospital in that it is open 24/7 and has facilities for admitting up to 20 patients.
• Procurement of medical supplies and drugs all 10 clinics.
• Arranging monthly workshops to build the capacity of the clinic staff.
• Continuing to treat Malaria and TB based on national protocols.
• Continuing to monitor for malnutrition and aiming to fully vaccinate all children.
Concerning the mental health department:
• Arranging weekly group therapy sessions with ex-fighters and other at-risk groups
• Conducting weekly consultations for particularly vulnerable individuals.
• Creating a psychosocial network between mental health patients and different social groups (teachers, traditional women, etc).
Outlook:
Ten Primary Healthcare centres in Bong County are fully operational. DoW UK rehabilitated all clinics and their infrastructure since their arrival in 2003.
The main aims for 2007 are:
• To support the 10 clinics by way of continuing to train staff and consolidate functioning in order to make the clinics more sustainable.
• Epidemic disease surveillance and management.
• To transfer critically unwell patients seen and assessed in DoW UK supported clinics to relevant secondary healthcare facilities.
• To implement a protocol for the prevention of the vertical transmission of HIV from mother to child – in liaison with the National AIDS control program
Addressing Mental Health Issues.
• Mental Health issues continue to be diagnosed and treated accordingly.
• Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) is systematically reported and victims are treated using nationally agreed protocols.
• Reintegration of ex-fighters through workshops and other projects.
• Training of ‘traditional women’ (upstanding mature female members of individual communities) to identify and support those with psychological problems within their communities.
Addressing Community Health Issues
• Working with Community Health Committees to spread relevant messages that promote preventive healthcare to our catchment population using methods that aid understanding (use of drama, discussion groups, pictorial messages, etc).
Improving the capacity of the County Health Team (CHT).
• The county health team are Ministry of Health representatives who will eventually be in charge of the running of the 10 DoW UK supported clinics. Providing training in certain areas (e.g. human resource management, medical supervision and capacity building) would help make the project more sustainable.
Project start date: September 2003
End date: September 2010
