Impact of “Healthy Start” in Liberia
Healthy Start is WaterAid’s 4-year Advocacy Priority (2015-2019) on improving the health and nutrition of newborn babies and children.
Cross Section of Health Workers at another “Healthy Start” Training
According to WaterAid, one in four newborn deaths in Liberia could be prevented with safe water, sanitation, and clean hands.
The briefing from the British Charity on “Healthy Start” revealed that the first month of life shows that annually nearly half a million babies die in the first month of life because they are born into unhygienic conditions.
According to a World Health Organization assessment of WASH activities between January and October 2015, in 63 healthcare facilities in 8 counties was conducted.
Health Workers at the end of the Training workshops
Findings indicate that there is a huge challenge in healthcare waste management especially segregation of waste, handling, treatment, and final disposal; challenges in water treatment and quality testing, lack of ash pits and placenta pits, lack of protective fencing in waste management areas, poor environmental management, and energy use.
A national, comprehensive ‘WASH package’ training of trainers was developed by the Ministry of Health, WHO and UNICEF to address these needs.
In a bid to address issues surrounding Healthy Start in Liberia, a local partner of WaterAid, SHALOM has conducted several training opportunities of health practitioners in Montserrado County.
In 2016, SHALOM with funding from WaterAid Liberia embarked on rolling the WASH in Health Training Package in three health Districts in Montserrado County.
Central Monrovia, Somalia Drive, and St. Paul Health District were the health districts that benefited from the trainings.
SHALOM has collaborated with the Ministry of health in ensuring that the package is successfully and appropriately rolled out with support from its trainers that participated in the Trainer of Trainers on the package.
Health Workers benefit from “Healthy Start” Training
Between 2016-2018, SHALOM rolled out the training to forty-five (45) health facilities (Hospitals, Health centers, and Clinics).
The British charity, WaterAid has been committed to funding the training sessions, while the Ministry of Health leads in the facilitation of modules within the package.
The Montserrado County health team has been instrumental in the selection and coordination of facilities that participated in the training which aid in avoiding duplication of activities.
Nine most relevant modules out of the fourteen modules were selected for the training.
These modules included, The WASH FIT, Sanitation in HCF, Healthcare waste Management, environmental cleaning and decontamination, Hand Hygiene, Health and Occupational safety, Water Supply and Safety, Facility Management and Energy, and Behavior Change Communication.
Five health Workers from each facility participated in the training, and twenty-five participants each attended the training for three days. Health practitioners from five facilities were trained for three-day sessions.
As a result of the WaterAid Healthy Start program, two Hundred and twenty-five (225) health workers from forty-five (45) health facilities in Montserrado County benefited from the training.
Out of the forty-five (45) facilities trained, 10 were private facilities while thirty-five were Public facilities.
75 out of 100% of these facilities trained showed a significant sign of changes as it relates to WASH integration in health service delivery.
Evidence of change at these facilities includes actions being taking by health workers in managing waste at their facilities.
Health workers listening attentively during one of the “Healthy Start” training sessions
These actions are easy labeling of waste canes that show exactly where each waste should be dispatched and education of patients on the meaning of word label on the canes to help in the segregation process.
Health workers are also engaged in robust education on hand Hygiene and Sanitation tips at these facilities.
These steps by the facilities where individuals were trained have helped greatly in maintaining and managing their waste.
Patients are now more conscious of how these facilities are to be kept, something that has shown significant change and impact as the result of “Healthy Start” by WaterAid in Liberia.
SHALOM disclosed that at the end of all training sections, it worked with the facilities and allow them to develop plans that are to be implemented at their various facilities based on the knowledge acquired.
These plans have given the participants some level of shared responsibilities in improving WASH at their various facilities.
Some of these plans have resulted in the establishment of WASH working teams at some of the facilities.
