The Kambia Appeal has provided various different training programmes for health workers in Kambia since the charity was established. Recent projects include:
Training of Traditional Birthing Attendants (TBAs)
Traditional Birth Attendants provide a vital role in Kambia. They are health volunteers trained to perform deliveries in village homes. They are trained to recognise the warning signs of complications of childbirth that require assistance from trained maternity staff at a health centre. Each village has a number of TBAs, so they are trusted members of each community. TBAs provide comfort to the women who are naturally anxious given the high maternal death rate and the problems that can occur.
The Kambia Appeal last funded a TBA training programme in 2006, when 400 TBAs from villages across the district took part in four weeks of intensive training workshops run by members of the Kambia District health team. Previous TBA training programmes in 1994-1996 were also funded by The Appeal through grants awarded by Comic Relief.
As TBA skills need to be updated regularly, there are now 580 TBAs in Kambia to be trained this year or next. The emphasis of this new training will be on the need for all mothers to deliver at health centres rather than in village homes. This means that the role of TBAs needs to shift to reflect this new approach, which is recommended by the WHO as a way of ensuring the reduction of maternal mortality and achieving Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5.
TBAs will be trained to encourage the women in their villages to attend antenatal clinics at the local health centres regularly throughout each pregnancy. They will also educate communities about the need for families, including husbands and decision-makers, to support pregnant women to help gain access to professional maternal health care and to ensure better chances of long term heath. Such support might include discouraging women from undertaking heavy work such as carrying water or fire wood and working in the fields during pregnancy, making funds available to allow women to use public or private transport and to pay for attendance at antenatal clinics.
Newly qualified TBAs with certificates and boxes of supplies donated by The Kambia Appeal in 2006.
Maternal and Child Health Aides (MCHAs)
Every local health centre in Kambia District is run by MCHAs who provide basic maternal and child health care and general first aid. The last training programme for MCHAs funded by The Kambia Appeal took place in November 2005 and was run by midwives from Gloucestershire. 58 MCHAs received two weeks of training at workshops at the Kambia Hospital.
MCHA at Barmoi Munu Health Centre given health information to women at the weekly antenatal clinic
We are currently fundraising to provide refresher training for 58 MCHAs, including the identification of obstetric emergencies, and 5 days of training in adult and infant resuscitation.
Community Health Officers (CHOs)
During visits to Kambia by UK medical personnel, training is often given to local health staff when needed. This photograph shows retired Gloucester GP Dr Mike Till teaching two CHOs how to tie surgical knots for caesarean sections during his six weeks working as the medical officer at the Kambia District Hospital.
In the coming year we hope to fund further surgical skills courses for CHOs.
