The Health Partnership Scheme (HPS) is a UK DfID initiative with The Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET) to build the long-term capacity of healthcare institutions overseas to deliver a better service to the communities they serve. We are one of four organisations in the UK selected to run three-year programmes to enable UK health staff to volunteer in developing countries for a minimum of six months at a time.

Our grant will provide funding for up to seven UK volunteers a year to work in Kambia to support the health services across the district. The project has been developed by Dr Stacey Mearns and Dr Clare Adams who both worked at the Kambia district hospital last year.

When asked about her experiences in Kambia, and how they relate to our HPS programme, Stacey said: “This project will enable volunteers to make significant contributions to health within Kambia in a sustainable manner. Volunteering on a project like this is not a one-way exchange. The experience offers insights and the gain of new perspectives and skills for life and work. My time spent volunteering challenged my concept of health, enabling me to see health in a much broader context. In addition it enabled me to develop a more extensive range of skills that are directly transferable back in the UK. I would strongly urge people thinking of doing this sort of work to get involved”.

This project has three core elements: teaching and training, clinical support and quality improvement activities. We believe that the combination of these activities will improve the performance of local health staff, strengthening the health system through improved delivery of care and thus contribute to improved health outcomes for the local population in Kambia.

In January, members of the Kambia Appeal visited Sierra Leone to undertake a comprehensive needs assessment to plan our activity in Kambia for the next three years. James Dowling, Richard Kerr-Wilson and Shona Lockyer were joined by Terry Smith (Kambia Appeal Treasurer), Jenny Hill (Gloucestershire NHS Project Manager), Adrienne Quintana and Peter Clark (Public Health Experts) for seven days of discussions and workshops with our partners, the Kambia District Management Health Team.

Richard Kerr-Wilson presents an overview of Kambia Appeal activities from the last few years to the District Health Management Team.

Following a priority needs assessment exercise run by Jenny Hill, a list of possible new initiatives was drawn up for the Appeal to support. A Memorandum of Understanding was agreed and signed between the Appeal and the DHMT. Later in the week this document was also signed at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in Freetown by the National Medical Director. This now gives us a plan of action for the next few years, which includes:

-   Training for maternal and child health staff

-   Scholarships to train new nurses and midwives

-   Local community health promotion

-   Purchase of an motorboat ambulance for the riverine communities

-   Running costs for motorbike ambulances at a number of health centres

-   A blood donation facility at the Kambia Hospital

-   Purchase of an operating theatre light

-   Delivery beds for the hospital and health centres

If you would like to make a donation to support these new projects, please click here to visit our online donations page.

Newly appointed District Medical Officer Dr Tom Sesay, District Pharmacist Augustin Brima and District Sister Hawa Kalon discuss the current health priorities in Kambia with Richard Kerr-Wilson.

Monitoring and Evaluation of the IHLFS Training programme

During the week, Adrienne Quintana led the monitoring and evaluation data-collection for our existing IHLFS training programme. Having now completed the first two years of this three-year project, it was necessary to review the outcomes of our training courses for maternal health staff at the hospital and at health centres in the district.

Adrienne’s initial findings suggest that since the delivery of free healthcare by the Sierra Leone government for pregnant women and lactating mothers maternal deaths in Kambia District have almost halved. With more mothers now seeking free healthcare and being referred for obstetric care at the hospital, our training of Kambia maternity staff is vital for improving the quality of care. Adrienne also visited health centres to check that delivery kits and vacuum extraction kits donated as part of the project were being used and maintained. We will publish Adrienne’s full M&E report here in the next few months.

Adrienne examines the Maternity Ward register with Kambia Appeal Project Manager, Moses Kabba, to review the outcomes of obstetric care at the Kambia Hospital.

A page from the Maternity Ward register

Women awaiting free healthcare at the Tuesday morning antenatal clinic at the Kambia Hospital

Delivery of International Health Partners consignment of drugs

During the visit we were also able to deliver the latest consignment of International Health Partners drugs to the Kambia District Pharmacy. IHP is a charity dedicated to improving access to health care and medicines in the developing world.  For a donation of £300, IHP provided us with £3,000 worth of essential drugs which will be given free to patients at the Kambia Hospital and at the health centres in the district. We presented the consignment first to the Kambia District Council to register our donation to the district, and then handed the supplies over to Dr Tom Sesay, Kambia District Medical Officer and Augustin Brima, the District Pharmacist.  Later in the week we visited Mile 14, one of the Health Centres in Kambia that received a previous supply of drugs from an IHP consignment.  The CHO in charge showed us the IHP drugs in her store and told many stories of positive health outcomes from the use of the free IHP medicines at her centre.

Richard Kerr-Wilson and Victor Kallie, Kambia District Chief Administrator

Sister Hawa Kalon, Augustin Brima and Dr Tom Sesay at the official hand-over

Opening the consignment at the Kambia District Medical Stores

CHO Terina at Mile 14 Health Centre shows us her supplies of IHP drugs from a previous Kambia Appeal consignment delivered last year by Clare Adams and Rob McFaul

Visit the International Health Partners website for further information about medical aid to developing countries

In November 2011, David Holmes led the fourth IHLSF visit as part of our three-year training programme to improve maternal and child health in Kambia District. Over six days, David and his Gloucestershire team ran training courses in obstetric emergencies, adult and neonatal resuscitation, general midwifery and nursing care for 84 health workers at the district hospital in Kambia.

Fortune Ibrahim, one of Kambia Community Health Officers who has taken part in a number of the Kambia Appeal training courses gave his response to the project:

“The training for CHOs has been very necessary and applicable within our communities by improving our life-saving skills. The training programme so far has already helped us manage critical conditions, such as post-partum haemorrhage and the resuscitation of new-born babies. These skills are very important out in the PHUs beyond the District Hospital, and will help to bring down maternal mortality to a very low level.”

Our thanks to David, Clare, Rob, Anneke, Angela, Charlotte, Alison, Jen and Laura! The next visit is planned for March this year.

To find out more about the IHLFS project click here.

The 3-day course costs £350 per participant.

For further information click here

The Kambia Appeal has now qualified to become a member of BOND, the UK membership body for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in international development.

Established in 1993 on the initiative of 61 NGOs working in international development, Bond has 358 members (at 31 March 2011) ranging from large bodies with a world-wide presence to smaller, specialist organisations working in certain regions or with specific groups of people.

To found out more about Bond, click here

The third training visit to Sierra Leone as part of the Kambia/Gloucestershire International Health Link Funding Scheme (IHLFS) took place last month, May 2011.  Maud Hardy, midwife from Leeds, and Sonia Maisey, Intensive Care Nurse from Cheltenham, ran courses at the Kambia Hospital in obstetrics, adult and neonatal resuscitation and basic nursing skills over five days for 29 Maternal and Child Health Aides (MCHAs) and 28 Voluntary Nursing Aides (VNAs).

The visit was part of the three-year funded project to provide training to staff at the Kambia Hospital and rural health centres throughout the district to improve maternal healthcare skills.  Further visits are planned for this year and next. The project is run jointly between The Kambia Appeal, the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Kambia District Health Management Team.

MCHAs (in the pink uniforms) work out in the district running health centres where they provide antenatal care and safe deliveries. They have three years of MCHA training before they qualify.  Topics covered during this refresher training visit included normal pregnancy and labour, neonatal resuscitation and recognising and dealing with obstetric emergencies.  Nursing Aides (in blue) are ‘untrained’ and work at the Kambia Hospital as volunteers.  They are unpaid and learn nursing skills on the job. Their refresher training included hand hygiene, disposal of sharps, identifying shock in adult patients and adult resuscitation. All the trainees complete a pre and post training questionnaire, so that skill levels can be determined and progress tracked. All MCHAs and VNAs in Kambia receive annual refresher training over the three years as part of the IHLFS programme.

If you would like to take part in midwifery training in Kambia in 2011 or 2012, please contact David Holmes on 08454 222337. Visits are usually 10 days long, comprising 5 days on intensive training.  The cost of flights, travel visas, board and lodging and vaccinations is provided by the IHLFS grant.  Accommodation is at The Kambia Appeal’s permanent base in Kambia Town.

Find out more about the Kambia Appeal’s IHLFS project.

MCHAs discussing stages of normal labour

Sonia Maisey with voluntary nurses during her nursing skills course

Maud Hardy giving refresher training in obstetrics to MCHAs

MCHAs sit the post-training questionnaire

It’s all over!

Clare Adams and Rob McFaul have been out in Kambia working for the Appeal since January.  Read all about their experiences and adventures in Sierra Leone.

Click here to read their fantastic blog.