Mr. Patrick  Saamu, Chairman, Kenema Town Council

I am the Chairman of the Kenema Town Council and also Chairman of the Hospital Board. The health care situation is in Kenema district, especially Kenema Town is improving.

There is marked reduction in common ailments in Kenema and an appreciable level of public health awareness. There is a significant level of hygiene and environmental awareness across the district. Our people and environments are becoming healthier by the clock. We are extremely proud of our indefatigable staff, the Health Ministry and our partners in that direction. Better days are ahead for us in Kenema.

The Kenema community is enjoying from the brotherly relationship between Nigeria and Sierra Leone. This has made it possible for Nigerian doctors to come over to work in Sierra Leone, not to fulfill selfish interests, but to serve us and our Government. We already have two of them here.

Dr Albert Uche (a Radiologist Specialist) and his colleague Emmanuel Akpo (a Surgeon Specialist) from the Teaching Hospitals of the Universities of Nigeria and Jos respectively, are doing well. They have demonstrated immense love for humanity, the [African] continent and their professional callings, by opting to come to the rescue of the Government and people, especially at a time when specialist doctors are services are scarce. We are proud of them. I’m hopeful that more doctors from Nigeria and other places will emulate their good examples.

The European Union, UNICEF, IRC, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone, GOAL, NaCSA, Merlin and UNANSIL among others, have been very helpful in enhancing the personnel and institutional capacities of the health sector in Kenema.

For example, the European Union and IRC have been building the capacity of our District Health Management Committee. UNICEF too recently gave us 31,660 insecticide treated bed net and 75 bicycle for our people and staff, while IRC has been assisting us with drug supplies, training programmes and infrastructural development, among others.

In fact, we can now boast of a well established maternity centre that is the envy of some other districts. In addition we are now capable to confront cancer face to face as we now have a laboratory for that, sponsored by UNAMSIL and WHO.

In the area of garbage collection, this is a difficult exercise. As a result, Kenema is divided into 30 zones that undertake regular monthly cleaning exercises on the last Saturdays of every month.