The Area Nine New Maforki Community Health Post was set up as a clinic in 2002 by the International Medical Corps (IMC), at the Old Port Loko Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Camp. The town itself is a new one which evolved from remnants of the IDPs who refused to return to their places of origin during the resettlement exercise.

Saidu K. Conteh, EDC Unit Dispenser-in-Charge, New Maforki Community Health Post, Port Loko District

The current structure that we are operating from is a private residence with 20 catchments, comprising a total of about 12,000 people including those from Moria and Rofenka Sections.  At the back of the structure is a makeshift Labour Room for deliveries which is managed by our MCH Aide Abibatu Conteh, one trained and nine untrained traditional birth attendants. In all, we have a total of 28 TBAs in the 14 villages we cover.

These structures were put in place following a formal appeal to the District Medical Officer by the community people who were appreciative of the services we were providing for them at the camp and during mobile outreaches. In those days services and drugs were administered free, but now they are provided on cost-recovery basis.

The Post provides all primary health care services including family planning, maternal and child health care, immunization and de-worming. We also handle minor ailments and regularly undertake community outreaches.

Our clinic days are Mondays and Tuesdays for Under-fives, Wednesdays for general outreaches, Thursdays for antenatal and postnatal care and Fridays for emergencies. In addition, our general clinic is open to the public everyday.

Our greatest problem is that we lack a permanent structure and operate from a community house, comprising four rooms. We do admit patients here for observation, but do not exceed 24 hours. Otherwise, we refer them to the Government Hospital at Port Loko, the District Headquarter town.

As for our Deliver Room, we use plastic sheeting and other improvised materials and equipment because we lack modern beds and are completely short of delivery kits.

We are also urgently in need of a VIP well as the current one is located about 200 metres away and is always crowded. So if anyone at the clinic including our patients is direly in need of water the nearby stream is our only alternative.

As for transport and communication, there is nothing to write home about as they are completely lacking.