Trip #18 was fabulous!
We spent great time with MOMS’ newest team member, Donnel Robert Deleh Seisay! Although born a month early, he has grown well, thank to his mother’s insistence on exclusive breastfeeding and lots of love. Jitta Rogers-Seisay and Alpha (Junior) Seisay are proving themselves good parents. Jitta laughs at herself - after more than 10 years of translating and training MOMS materials, she now has experienced them first hand, and this information is now specially real to her.
While in Sierra Leone, we attended two Leadership Council meetings. These dedicated women, one elected from each cohort, discussed ways to work more effectively to make change happen. They are also eager to begin compiling data from their local clinics to document the good effects of their work.
The Train-the-Trainer session was a little rocky, but overall we are very proud of our student trainers’ progress. They did find that teaching is sometimes harder than it looks - managing time while allowing a lot of interaction from the learners is a challenge that can trip experienced facilitators! We provided more teaching to them on several aspects of anatomy and physiology, and they are asking for more!
AND, the class of Blama-Massaquoi in the Pujehun District was outstanding. Nine of the 31 women got 100% on the final exam. Only three students received below 90% — one at 84%, one at 86%, and one at 88%. The rest of the learners all got As! They worked diligently, setting up study groups from the very beginning. As the course took place during Ramadan, instead of eating, they studied!
We were joined this trip by Anna Franceschi, from MOMS’ partner Circle of Health International, and by Colleen Lyon, from AYZH. While they spent only two weeks and one week with us, we enjoyed them and they enjoyed their experience with MOMS. Experiencing Sierra Leonean village life and our classroom is very different from reading about it or even seeing pictures. The sounds and smells and texture of Sierra Leone and MOMS’ work defy explanation.
The next trips
Our plan for the next trip is to return in October, 2017, to hold another Community Health Worker class and finish the preparation of our student trainers. Please help us make this happen! Thank you!
We have talked with the medical team in the Bo District about teaching again in the region, and Jitta and Junior are working with the District Medical Officer to choose a suitable location.
The first 2018 trip will be in the late spring or early summer, and we hope to teach Community Health Workers in the Kailahun District again. We hope to start a new cohort of Trainers, to prepare them to teach our Community Health Worker curriculum. Then we’ll aim for October 2018, perhaps in the Pujehun District, to continue working with the new Trainers and teach more Community Health Workers.
For October 2018, the Leadership Council aims to hold another Jamboree! They love these events. Their two favorite parts are the networking and the continuing education. Leader Kai Jigbai of Tikonko arm-wrestled the others for the privilege of hosting this event, and won! So she has already begun planning with members of her group. The two Leaders who most recently hosted Jamborees (Mamie Lamin of Pellie and Jeneba Batty of Ngolahun) offered to advise and support Tikonko’s work.
Newsletters
If you want to read more about our trips, you can subscribe to our newsletter, below. We send these out six or seven times a year.
Amazon Wishlist
Many of you like to support us with the specific items we need. And we love getting those packages! We set up a wishlist at Amazon.com for this. If you use AmazonSmile, MOMS also receives about .5% of the purchase price! How cool is that? https://smile.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/23TIOKIM25NM8
What is MOMS?
Briefly, MOMS is a humanitarian, non-profit agency whose mission is to improve maternal and infant health in the poorest areas of the world.
MOMS' teams build capacity among the women in the rural areas. We teach the traditional birth attendants (their own choice of term) four things:
- To be the bridge between the community and the clinic system
- To make changes to solve women's health problems
- To provide evidence-based maternity care
- To teach their neighbors about women’s health needs, sanitation, and nutrition
For more information, see the MOMS Mission pages.
Volunteers!
We love our volunteers. If you are interested in being a Board member or going on a teaching trip, see our Volunteer! page.
- Buffy Price has made three trips with MOMS, and is looking forward to more! She is an invaluable team member, with a great sense of humor and a gentle and crisp teaching style.
- Cherilyn Porter will make her first trip with MOMS in Spring or Summer of 2018. That trip will be special: The first time a grandmother-granddaughter team will work together. And this is not just nepotism: Cheri has a MS and has solid experience in teaching at several levels.
- Cordelia Hanna-Cheruiyot will make her first trip with MOMS in the Fall of 2017. Cordelia is the founder and Executive Director of the Association for Wholistic Maternal and Newborn Health in the Los Angeles Area, and has years of relevant experience.
You can help!
If you want to work with us, see Volunteer! on this website. If you are not able to travel to Africa, remember that we need help with social media, fundraising, grant-writing, secretarial work, research, etc.
You can send MOMS a check, to PO Box 1656, Gualala, CA 95445. Or you can donate electronically. Just click this button:
Our Accomplishments - with your support!
Since 2006, MOMS’ teams have made 18 trips to Sierra Leone, ranging from two to 13 weeks per trip.
- Initial Training: 318 women in eight cohorts
- Continuing Education: 225 women have taken over a dozen classes
- Helping Babies Breathe: 28 people; eight clinics supported
- Essential Care for Every Baby: 6 people; one clinic supported
- Gardening businesses established: five groups
- Palm oil business established: eight groups
- Clinic built, supplied, and staffed
- Leadership Council established, and working to solve problems
- Three new local trainers in preparation to work independently
- MOMS Community Health Workers included in the District Medical Health Team
- Maternal or fetal mortality related to MOMS CHW errors: 0
We have also made two trips to Uganda to teach at Kitojo Integrated Development Association.