Latest news from Sierra Leone

On the country's day of independence in April this year, the President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma launched free healthcare for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under fives. This free health care is supported by DFID, the Department for International Development, in order to reduce maternal deaths and child morbidity for which Sierra Leone has had one of the highest rates in the world. This includes a commitment to increase the salaries of doctors and nurses (who have recently been striking), refurbish health centers and clinics, and supply basic medical equipment.

Highlights from our projects

• A new eye department was opened in the government hospital in Kenema in May. The unit is expected to serve a population of around half a million people in the Eastern Province, neighbouring provinces, as well as border countries such as Guinea and Liberia.

• Plenty of advocacy meetings are planned with the Minister of Education Science and Technology, to push for the creation of an inclusive education policy. In the meantime, preparations for a teacher-training workshop began. It will focus on teachers in mainstream secondary schools that visually impaired children go to, and will help them cater for the needs of these children, and their assistive equipment.

• Sightsavers has also provided Braille text books and volumes of the syllabus for primary schools, and a library is being put together in the Milton Margai School for the Blind to facilitate the use of these books.

Achievements

 

In 2010 in Sierra Leone, we supported our partners to carry out:

• The treatment of 49,068 people for sight related problems
• 1,221 cataract operations
• Dispense 5,947 pairs of glasses