A New Group of MOMS’ CHWs
They say “thank you” for all your help.
MOMS team of Certified Trainers conducted this class in the TIkonko Chiefdom, down the road from where we trained in 2015. We’d been trying to get back to this area for several years. Thanks to funding from the Rural Healthcare Initiative and the hard work of our Trainers, it finally happened!
We taught 43 and had a Jamboree!
We returned to Sierra Leone in November and December of 2018 and were pretty nervous about the work we had to get done. But we did it — thanks to you!
- Train a new classes of MOMS Community Health Workers: 43 graduates!
- Hold a Jamboree (“Hold” is a terrible word for all the work that goes into it!)
- Meet with our in-country staff for planning and problem-solving
Buffy Price made her fourth trip as a MOMS volunteer. Buffy is our breast health specialist and her teaching has saved lives and her ideas are restoring dignity to hundreds of women.
While Buffy teaches other parts of our curriculum for Community Health Workers, she leads our continuing education program on breast health, teaching about breast cancer and self-examinations. True to MOMS value on building capacity, she also teaches the CHWs how to breast exams and how to teach self-examinations.
Because of Buffy’s classes, women have found lumps early and received treatment. Yet many women return from the hospital scarred both physically and emotionally. Buffy marshaled the force of Knitted Knockers, a non-profit group that works to provide women with clean, attractive, comfortable, cheap breast prostheses, knitted, crocheted, and sewn with love. She brought 250 Knitted Knockers to Sierra Leone and taught at the Jamboree about them. Already, our Leadership Council is distributing them to women who are in need.
We trained and certified 43 women to be Community Health Workers. On the final exam 10 earned 100%, 15 more earned an A, 17 earned a B, and one woman earned a C. We insist that all women must earn 70% or better if they are to receive a certificate.
The class was big — too big! — but they worked hard. We are very proud of them and of ourselves!
For more information about this trip, you can read our newsletter from our Publications page and check some pictures on our Albums page.
Save a life, educate a woman! Help MOMS!
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.
Our Accomplishments - with your support!
Since 2006, MOMS’ teams have made 22 trips to Sierra Leone, ranging from two to 13 weeks per trip.
- Initial Training: 451 women in 11 cohorts
- Continuing Education: 325 women have taken over a dozen classes (more at the upcoming Jamboree!)
- Helping Babies Breathe: 40 people, including instructors at the School of Midwifery in Bo and nurses at Bo Hospital
- Essential Care for Every Baby: 10 people, including the School of Midwifery faculty (this information is folded into our regular curriculum for health workers, so add 300 more learners!)
- 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 local trainers fully prepared to teach the Community Health Workers course
- 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.