We Care Solar 2023 Clinic Report-Angus Hervey.pdf - Leslie Weir

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Light Every Birth Sierra Leone Health Facility Support Report for Angus Hervey and Future Crunch Background No woman should die giving life. We Care Solar envisions a world where mothers and newborns are delivered safely in well-equipped health centers. We believe every woman has the right to a safe delivery in a clean, well-lit health facility. Since 2010, We Care Solar has been addressing an area of global health care that is often overlooked: health facility electrification. Our award- winning Solar Suitcases provide lifesaving light, medical devices, and essential electricity to last mile health centers, improving access to timely, effective, around-the-clock medical care. Working in partnership with governments, UN agencies, and international NGOs, we have reached some of the most remote health centers in the world. Our Solar Suitcase programs enhance care in labor rooms, maternity wards, neonatal units and operating theatres. Our training programs build local capacity in solar installation, operation, and servicing, advance women as solar installers, and create an ecosystem of support for our programs. We Care Solar’s Light Every Birth initiative is championing clean energy for safe childbirth in countries with high rates of maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality and challenges with health facility electrification. Light Every Birth in Sierra Leone In Sierra Leone, more than 3,000 lives are lost each year from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. UN agencies report that Sierra Leone is one of three countries with the worst maternal mortality rates in the world. For a woman of reproductive age, the lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes is 1 in 17. At the same time, only 1.5% of the rural population has access to electricity. The lack of electricity is a significant barrier to safe deliveries. Without proper light, health workers struggle to administer appropriate medication, start intravenous lines, provide basic essential services, identify and treat complications, and conduct lifesaving procedures. Launched in 2020, our Light Every Birth program in Sierra Leone is on schedule to reach every public rural health center in need of power for safe childbirth by the end of 2023, improving efforts to achieve equitable health care in this country of great need and challenging infrastructure. The response to our work in Sierra Leone has been outstanding. Health workers report an improved ability to care for mothers and newborns. Having reliable solar lighting increases their confidence, dramatically improves their working conditions and boosts morale, typically reducing staff attrition. Mothers are more likely to access facility-based obstetric care when lighting is assured, choosing skilled care over riskier home births. As a result, complications are reduced, and lives are saved. In addition, with the Solar Suitcase, health workers report they are better able to provide a range of primary care services at night, uplifting the entire community. www.wecaresolar.org Sierra Leone Installations and Impact Your 2022 Clinic Sponsorship supported Foredugu Community Health Center (CHC) in Karene, a farming district in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. On the day of the installation, five health staff were taught how to use the equipment, including the fetal Doppler to listen to the fetal heart rate, and infrared thermometer. Foredugu CHC reported a total of 14 births in the month prior to our installation and are projected to conduct 168 births in the coming year. Over the next five years more than 1,600 mothers and babies will benefit from your support. Many facilities report increased community usage and deliveries when they can function through the night without prolonged darkness, so annual deliveries may increase. Based on catchment population, an additional 11,123 community members will also benefit from having our solar lights and power at the Foredudu CHC. The impact of your clinic support extends beyond the benefits for the health facility. The female technicians we trained in 2021 as part of our Women’s Empowerment Program are now leading Solar Suitcase installations in Sierra Leone. They were excited to install your supported Solar Suitcase in Kerene district. Training health workers to use the Solar Suitcase at Foredugu CHC www.wecaresolar.org Voices from Kerene District, Sierra Leone Abibatu Turay – Mother of Three My name is Abibatu Turay and I am 32 years old. I attended school, but I did not continue onto college after taking the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) because of financial reasons. I am married with 3 children, my daughter (pictured) is the eldest and I have two younger boys. I have been unemployed for a while, but most recently I have become a petty trader. My husband is a driver and that’s how we sustain our household of seven. However, I have also started contributing with what I make from trading. I have delivered all of my children either with no power or with unreliable power. Sometimes I’ll come to the health facility to deliver and the power will go out in the middle of the delivery until the end. And sometimes there is no power throughout the whole labor and delivery. This makes it very difficult. Since the installation of the Solar Suitcase, we have been very happy. There is usually no power at this facility and on days when the facility is full and people are here until it gets dark it becomes very confusing for the patients. So, we are grateful for this suitcase and I pray that Allah blesses those that provided us with the suitcase. Before the fetal doppler, the health workers used the “mata-odo” to listen to our babies and then the nurses would listen and tell us what they hear. Sometimes it can take a long time for them to even hear something, and sometimes we aren’t sure if they actually heard anything. So there was a lot of uncertainty. Giving birth in darkness is difficult for anyone, including those delivering our babies. I sometimes also feel bad for the health workers because you can see that they are struggling, especially when there is no power. Sometimes it’s just the two of them and one will have to hold the phone or the flashlight while the other one struggles to deliver the baby. It’s really not easy and I am very grateful to them for all that they do for us. I will certainly recommend other women to come and deliver at this facility. I will tell other women about the light and the fetal doppler. I’m sure they won’t believe me so they will come to find out for themselves, and they will see that this machine allows them to hear their child. Turning on the lights at Foredugu CHC www.wecaresolar.org Hawanatu Mamie Kanneh –Solar Installer I come from a very humble background. Growing up we didn’t have electricity. My dad finished secondary school and sat his college entrance exams but because of his family’s financial situation he couldn’t go further in his studies. My mom completed junior high and couldn’t go further for the same reason and because she had to help her family at home. My siblings also didn’t complete their education. When I was a little girl, I wanted to become an engineer. I studied renewable energy in college and that’s my specialty. Women are needed in this field because there are so few of us. I was attending East End Technical University and when our lecturers were asked for the best female technicians, myself and another student were recommended because we had the best results in the graduating class. I later on found out that this was because We Care Solar had requested that women be part of the training and installation team. I didn’t know that the training would be led by women. And when I found out, I was very happy. It was important to me because I felt comfortable. It motivated me and also made the men we were training with take us seriously because we were being trained by women. Even in college the other students used to make fun of us and say that we were wasting our money and time in college studying something that’s meant for men. Seeing other women leading us who studied the same thing I did, felt really good. I have made the right choice about my future. During the training, it was my first-time using power tools, installing a solar panel on the roof, walking on a roof and I was very scared at first. It was also my first-time training health workers to use equipment. I was shy and nervous because I used to have a fear of public speaking. But with more practice, now I do the majority of the teaching and I am really confident. I felt really Installing solar panels at Foredugu CHC www.wecaresolar.org happy my first time to mounting a Solar Suitcase in a labor room because I was giving communities a life changing machine. Conclusion Through your generosity, we have brought health and hope to midwives, mothers and newborns in Sierra Leone. By ensuring that medical lighting and essential electricity are available in primary health facilities, Light Every Birth will have a significant impact on the quality of maternal- newborn care in Sierra Leone and will assist health workers in their efforts to enforce infection prevention and control protocols. We are grateful for the opportunity, provided by your sponsorship, to meet the goal of country-wide saturation in Sierra Leone—bringing life-saving power to every health facility in need so women no longer deliver in darkness. We have recently launched Light Every Birth in Nigeria, a country that accounts for 14% of maternal deaths globally. We look forward to continuing this vital work with you. Please let me know if you would be interested in renewing your sponsorship and joining us in supporting the mothers, midwives, and babies in Nigeria. Contact Information Laura Stachel, MD MPH, DrPH, Executive Director [email protected] 1(510) 219-7044 Health workers receive their training certificate at Foredugu CHC www.wecaresolar.org