PHOTO: Madam Sue Larmouth Gaye-korgba
By Emmanuel Mafelah
GBARNGA, Liberia- The Lutheran Church in Liberia Malaria program (LCLMP) Coordinator, Sue Larmouth Gaye-korgba has described the year 2020 as a year of success, despite the grave challenging in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mrs. Gay-korgba despite extreme difficulties brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, they went beyond their targeted populations or catchment communities with support received from partners.
“I can clearly say to you that we made a lot of impacts despite the coronavirus pandemic. We have to add additional activities to the activities that we already had in our proposal before the coronavirus outbreak. And one of those additional ones was providing food for the maternal waiting home. Because of the outbreak we observed that our pregnant women were staying at home, the fear of coming to the facility, the rumors surrounding the disease that health workers was infecting people with it,” the Lutheran Malaria Program boss explained.
Mrs. Gaye-korgba also revealed that as an humanitarian organization they tried to prevent maternal and child health adding, “So what we did was we went from communities to communities and met with the community leaders, midwives and the pregnant women themselves, in order to encourage them come to the hospital.”
After their meeting with the locals, Mrs. Gaye-Korgba, said that a decision was taken by the institution to divert some funds allocated to other areas during the year under review due to the coronavirus pandemic as a way of aiding health institutions, individuals and the communities during the difficult period of the country.
She named the Phebe Hospital and School of Nursing, the C. B. Dunbar Maternity Hospital, the Bong Mine Hospital, as well as the Palala and Gbarnlai Maternal Waiting Homes, among others as major health facilities the LCLMP provided supports in 2020.
According to the Lutheran Malaria Program Coordinator, several bags of rice, bags of salt, children clothes, hand sanitizers, and hand washing buckets, among others, were been donated by the organization to these health centers, in order to buttress government’s efforts in combating the pandemic.
“For Bong county we are not a stranger to the County health Team here. We are one of the partners working here in collaboration with the Phebe Hospital and School of Nursing and also working alongside the Bong County Health Team to rescue our people from their different health conditions,” said Gaye-Kprgba.
Despite the challenges, she asserted, 2020 was a year of tremendous achievements.
“You’re aware that during the year 2020 I was being recognized and honored by my organization, the Lutheran Church in Liberia as the highest working director of the year. I worked with my whole heart, I risk my life.”
I have been working but I think my bosses knew that 2020 was extraordinarily great because I will come from the bush, go to Monrovia, Lofa back to Gbarnga just like I am going to the Gbarnga broad street or to the Gbarnga Central market by buy food doing the work of my institution.
This year 2021, madam Gaye-korgba stated that they the LCLMP remains committed in the area of advocacy and training where community members are provided skills to initiate local advocacy on malaria prevention beyond the project lifespan as part of the sustainability strategy, while building ownership among community members to develop the resilience in managing their own healthcare.
“Even though we were fighting COVID-19 in 2020, we didn’t forget about other areas. Prior to the outbreak, we were involved with the establishment of school health clubs in all of our project communities where students led malaria prevention awareness and sensitization campaigns on various campuses and communities. The focus of these campaigns has been mainly to increase responsiveness among the locals on the right usage and maintenance of the mosquito nets we normally distribute to prevent malaria. We are hoping to continue with these different programs in this new year,” Madam Gaye-Korgba said.
At the Palala and Gbarnlai maternal waiting homes, Mrs. Gaye-Korgba said the LCLMP remains supportive to these facilities especially midwives and pregnant women.
She then extended commendations to the community people, the midwives, the county authority and especially the Bong County Health Team for always standing by the LCLMP team.
She praised community memebrs mostly the pregnant women for attending these health facilities to get medications while fighting against COVID-19 in 2020 and furthered urged them to continue.
In 2020, the institution were able to have spent little over USD$20,000 for food, hand sanitizers, baby clothes, hand washing buckets, bags of salt and amongst others.
Under the LCLMP’s project, Gaye-korgba said that he the Village Saving Loan was one of the areas that saw improvement or that scored highest marks.
“One of the group that surprised me most is in the just ended year is the Village Saving Loan. Some of the groups generated about One million Liberian dollars, Eight hundred thousand Liberian dollars, some Six, Nine, Four hundred thousand Liberian dollars and amongst others while fighting the coronavirus,” she said.
As a way of empowering members of the Village Saving Loan, she stated that LCLMP provide them (members of the saving groups) $15,000.000 Liberian dollars, the saving boxes, pens, the money counting board and even provide them the training.
The village saving loan program is a way to build the livelihood of the ordinary people become self-reliance in the society.
Due to the overwhelming challenges the county heath team faces in the fight against the deathly coronavirus, Madam Gaye-Korgba told reporters that their institution were very instrumental in creating awareness about COVID-19 in several communities across the county.
The awareness was meant to encouraged citizens prevent or seek treatments for other diseases including malaria, stroke, diarrhea, diabetes and among others.
Mrs.Gaye-korgba appealed to international organizations, national government and goodwill individuals provide support to the Lutheran Church in Liberia Malaria Program (LCLMP), with funding in order to reach out to many other communities in the country.