News

Miss Sierra Leone 2012 Pageant to support Wellbody Alliance

2012-06-09T03:22:49Z

Wellbody Alliance has partnered with Miss Sierra Leone USA’s 2012 pageant to support our maternal and child healthcare program in Kono! You can read the press release here; for those in the DC area, we’d love to see you at the event! Executive Director Dan Kelly and supermodel Selita Ebanks will be speaking, and we hope to raise the funds for a new ambulance for obstetric emergencies.

Information on registering is on Miss Sierra Leone USA’s Facebook page.

Maternal Health for Mother's Day

2012-05-14T17:02:55Z

Dear Supporters,

Mother's Day should be a special day for mothers everywhere. Mothers in Sierra Leone, however, face some of the worst maternal health conditions in the world--this day and every day.

1 in 8 women die from pregnancy-related complications, and over 80% of those women die because they live in remote villages. They do not have access to caesarean sections and emergency obstetric care; those experiencing a complicated delivery are often forced to ride hours over a bumpy road in the back of an ambulance while in labor. Many times the ambulance is not called because there is no phone network, and even if the the ambulance is requested, it is often in disrepair and cannot be driven. Nobody should die because they don't have access to transportation for emergency care, and it is no wonder that many women return home for the more humane care that they receive from unskilled traditional birth attendants.

We strive to improve the lives of these Sierra Leonean women 365 days a year through our partnership with the Koidu Government Hospital. Traditional birth attendants, now trained as Wellbody Alliance's community health workers (like those pictured above), contact us when a pregnant women needs the government ambulance, and we work to ensure that the ambulance reaches that woman. We also upgraded the hospital's operating room so that women who arrive in need of a c-section receive higher quality care. These are some of our contributions—to preventing these stupid deaths—but we can do better.

The hospital only has one inadequate ambulance for the district. We need another ambulance to improve these essential referral services.

One ambulance will save many lives.

We have a long way to go to ensuring that this day can be celebrated by mothers in America and Sierra Leone alike, but an ambulance is a start. Please consider making a contribution to Wellbody Alliance in support of a new ambulance for all the mothers who lack access to emergency obstetric care by clicking here.

We hope your mother appreciates the gift that you give her on this special day.

In solidarity,

Dan Kelly, MD
Executive Director
Wellbody Alliance USA
www.wellbodyalliance.org

Innovations at Wellbody

2012-05-14T17:00:59Z

When our laboratory manager Vincent turned on the rechargeable battery-operated centrifuge in September of 2011, he wasn’t sure when to switch it off. This laboratory device was an innovation of Rice University’s Beyond Traditional Borders program, and we were given the first opportunity to field test the centrifuge made from a golf ball cleaner.

Not knowing when to stop it, Vincent decided 6-minutes was enough. He was pleasantly surprised to find his urine specimen ready for microscopic analysis and used downtime to review other slides. After some more test runs, Vincent found the same results at 2 minutes 30 seconds. With this device, we can complete more lab tests than ever before.

This innovative device improved our capacity to see more patients, and we excited to be working in collaboration with the program to Rice to design the next generation. We hope to test the modified device in late 2012. We value innovations that improve our capacity to be the best at what we do: serving the poor. Thank you for accompanying us, and giving us a chance to make what we do better.

Please support our cause and consider a donation today.

In Solidarity,

Dan Kelly, MD
Executive Director
Wellbody Alliance USA

Dr. Bailor Barrie to give public lecture at Princeton

2012-02-21T00:01:02Z

Dr. Mohamed Bailor Barrie, Wellbody Alliance's Sierra Leone director, will be giving a public lecture at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School on Friday, February 24th at 4:30PM. We hope to see many of you there!

Click here for more information.

Dr. Bailor Barrie's Northeast US speaking tour

2012-02-05T05:18:53Z

Dr. Bailor Barrie, Wellbody Alliance's Sierra Leone director, will be in the Northeast US from February 14-28th. Please contact info@wellbodyalliance.org if you're interested in scheduling an event in NY, NJ, MA, PA or CT! More details to come soon on his official speaking schedule.

Philadelphia Medical Team Heads to Kono

2012-02-02T03:27:13Z

Four doctors and two nurses from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital arrived in Kono today for up to six weeks of volunteering at our primary care clinic! The medical team will provide clinical consultations as well as ultrasound training for Wellbody's nursing staff who hope to improve their ability to deliver essential ultrasound services to Kono's rural poor.

You can read more about the team in this press release, and support their work here!

Wellbody's impact on one man's life--new video

2012-01-04T04:38:42Z

An intern with Wellbody Alliance's Kono Clinic interviews a Sierra Leonean entrepreneur about his business practices and ends up getting a sincere thank you for the clinic's work.

A carnival to fight teenage pregnancy

2011-12-29T05:52:17Z

“Puberty, sex, contraceptives? Talking about such things will bring shame…and your friends will think you are loose!” Culture shock hit hard and fast when Daboh, one of Wellbody's community health workers, first said this to me. Imagine going through the biggest changes in your 13-year life and not having anyone to talk to about them. Imagine not knowing how to prevent an STD or unwanted pregnancy while you are still in school. Currently, many adolescents in Sierra Leone are living out this exact scenario.

As an intern with Wellbody Alliance this summer in Kono, Sierra Leone, I developed a carnival planned in conjunction with Wellbody’s PEPTOK program, a peer education project that trains Sierra Leonean teens to educate Kono’s school-going youth on issues regarding sexual health. PEPTOK uses media campaigns, dramatic productions, and lectures to aid in its mission. PEPCarnival, as I called my undertaking, served the dual purposes of evaluating the efficacy of PEPTOK and determining if carnivals are a culturally appropriate intervention for teaching teens about sexual health.

To achieve my two goals, I pitted students who attended a PEPTOK program against students who had not in a quiz contest. This allowed me to track scores on the quizzes as a function of having attended PEPTOK events. Then, after having all the students listen to PEPTOK members lecture on issues relating to sexual health, I had them retake the quizzes. This allowed me to track accuracy as function of time spent at the carnival.

The data so far looks very promising. The PEPTOK students did much better than the non-PEPTOK kids at first, but, as expected, the non-PEPTOK students eventually began to catch up. Because this PEPCarnival is cost effective, versatile and mobile, we believe this is an effective way to teach teens all across Kono about sexual health. While ineffective use of contraceptives and high teenage pregnancy rates are a result of multiple factors in Sierra Leone, many teenagers simply don't know how to prevent pregnancies and STD infections; our PEPTOK program may be an essential first step in reducing early pregnancies and high-risk sexual activity.

But PEPTOK and PEPCarnival are only possible with support from sponsors and donors like you.

Please consider making a donation during this holiday season.

Thank you, and happy holidays!

Sincerely,

Teguru Tembo
Princeton University Class of 2013

Goats to fight hunger in Kono

2011-12-25T05:56:37Z

"I tell you, there was one day this year when I didn't have anything to eat for more than two days. The pain in my head, it was like nothing I've ever felt before." A friend told me this on my first day back in Kono. The price of food had gone up in the past year, over 70% of the population remained frequently unemployed, and nearly every person I met said that more than anything else, they needed food to fill their bellies.

Over the two years I've worked with Wellbody Alliance, it has become clear that healthcare isn't the only human right being denied to people in Kono--many do not even have access to enough food. Chronic hunger leads to poor health and reduce adherence to medications, and is also the cause of incredible stress, anxiety and suffering for Sierra Leone's rural poor. There is a tension, a pain you can almost see in the eyes of someone who does not know when he will get his next meal; for us at Wellbody Alliance, addressing hunger is an essential part of developing a healthcare system in Kono District, but is also a morally imperactive act of social justice.

For the past two years, I have worked with local staff, community leaders and a team of Princeton University interns to develop a sustainable food-security program in several villages in Kono. With the support of Princeton Health Grand Challenges and Davis Projects for Peace, we have worked with communities to build shelters that can hold large herds of goats, and have stocked each village with breeding animals. Each person who takes care of the goats for one day receives a salary sufficient to feed his family, and save some money as well. Wellbody Alliance's community healthworkers--who work in the villages encouraging patients to take their medications, accompanying sick individuals to the clinic and evaluating pregnant women and children in their homes-- have also been trained to distribute the salaries each day and monitor the goats. When the herds are large enough, Wellbody staff members will sell two animals a month, earning enough income to pay for the villagers' daily salaries and expand the project into more communities.

In a region of the world where much of the population faces destitute poverty and hunger every day, Wellbody Alliance represents unique hope for communities. At its core, Wellbody is not a charity but a social justice organization working to guarantee healthcare as a fundamental human right. Programs like this food security project attest to Wellbody's holistic vision: only by addressing extreme poverty and hunger--the most important social determinants of health--will it be possible to build an effective healthcare system in Kono.

Wellbody needs your help to continue growing in 2012. Just $5 can provide free care for a pregnant woman or war-wounded civilian, and $40 allows us to purchase a goat for another village. Consider giving a gift today.

Happy holidays,

Raphi Frankfurter
Princeton University Class of 2013

Wellbody's Impact in 2011

2011-12-25T05:55:38Z

Dear Supporters,

As Wellbody Alliance's fifth year comes to a close, I wanted to share just a few of our achievements from 2011:

We became the first facility in Kono District to deliver ultrasound and electrocardiogram services.All pregnant women and adults requiring cardiac care in the region now have access to these essential medical tools, a huge step in developing Kono's healthcare system.

We provided 300 people with high-quality eye care services and are currently developing a mental health program out of our medical complex. We've created a plan with the District Hospital to integrate our services into their facility, because we know that we can only guarantee healthcare as a long-term human right for Sierra Leone's rural poor by developing the public healthcare system.

We upgraded public clinics with fetal stethoscopes, beds, and other medical supplies. We work to foster development for local communities and medical facilities, ensuring patient trust in the healthcare system.

At our own medical complex in 2011 (pictured above) we provided primary healthcare at over 20,000 patient visits. Our dedicated community healthworkers accompany patients to the clinic every day, and our highly-trained nurses and medics provide free high-quality care to HIV patients, pregnant women, children under-5 and civilian war-wounded, and accessible healthcare to everyone else.

The end of 2011 marks another year of success, but we can only continue to expand if we have the funding and support of all of you in this New Year. We need to raise over $100,000 by the end of the year to develop our services in the coming months. Any donation makes a difference: $5 dollars can help us provide free care to a pregnant woman or child under 5, and $50 dollars can support a community health worker job for one month. Over 95% of your donation will go straight to Sierra Leone, and because of our manageable size we maintain transparency, accountability and efficacy as central values to our work.

Join us in this season of solstice with solidarity, and be a part of our movement to guarantee high-quality healthcare for Sierra Leone’s rural poor!

Best wishes for the holiday season,

Dan Kelly, MD

Executive Director