The Ministry of Health (MOH), through its Community Health program in Collaboration with the International Rescue Committee, USAID, Last Mile Health, and Community Safety Initiative has finally closed the USAID Community Health Activity (CHA) Project in Liberia.
The closing event held recently at the Ministry of Health, drew together key stakeholders and partners to grace the occasion, thus featuring the certification of over 20 healthcare service providers for their exemplary contributions and the successful implementation of the founded CHA project.
Those certificated include Dr Lorraine C. Cooper, county Health Services Director; Patrick Konwloh -Director, HIS; George F. Tamatai – Community Health focal person; and Josephine F. Gbayeah- Module lead for child health, among several others, from the USAID’s four implementation counties.
Over the past few years, the CHA project was implemented by the International Rescue Committee and the consortium of partners, Last Mile Health, Community Health (LMH), Community Safety Initiative (CSI), and Development Education Network of Liberia (DEN-L).
The USAID Community Health Activity Project impacted Liberia in several key areas of Health Services, it scaled up the CHA services in all hard-to-reach communities under 135 Health Facilities in 26 districts across the four implementation counties.
It increased the number of Community Health Assistants (CHAs) from 568 to 1,381 in the four implementation counties, reduced the CHA-to-population ratio from 1:603 to 1:316 which is in alignment with the national community health policy (1:350) and increased access to health care services in communities beyond 5 km from the health facilities allowing caregivers to seek care early for children.
The project also strengthened the supply chain system for community service providers promoted transparency and security, enhanced the trust of caregivers, and boosted the confidence of CHAs the National Public Health Institute of Liberia now has an electronic surveillance system that supports real-time reporting of syndromic triggers at the community level, something that was obtained through the CHA Project.
Liberia’s Chief Medical Officer, Catherine T. Cooper, extended sincere thanks to the US Government and its people for their enormous contribution to the health and welfare of the people of Liberia.
She said, “We have seen the continuous commitment of our sister nation to support us in our plight to ensure universal access to health care services for our most vulnerable populations across our country.
This project has immensely helped us to strengthen the National Community Health Program and our county teams’ ability to reach communities that are beyond the 5km radius of the health facility,” Dr. Cooper noted.
According to her, USAID’s support for strengthening the partnership between the government, vulnerable communities, and non-governmental organizations has come a long way, along with the support for Liberia’s bold reforms to revitalize primary health care at the community level.
She maintained that since the government institutionalized the National Community Health Program (NCHP), USAID-funded projects have always had one of the highest numbers of community health workers.
She further disclosed that over 1400 CHAs and 150 Community Health services supervisors (CHSSs) in Bong, Lofa, River Gee, and Grand Kru counties, as community workers have supported the government’s efforts to bring primary healthcare lifesaving preventive, promotive, and curative efforts to vulnerable Liberians living in remote areas away from health facilities.
Dr. Cooper, at the same time, affirmed MOH’s commitment to taking ownership and working collaboratively to maintain the achievements brought by the USAID Community Health Activity, thereby anticipating ongoing partnership with USAID as the ministry advances toward the shared goal of self-reliance in healthcare.
Meanwhile, the USAID Community Health Activity is USAID Liberia’s flagship community health program and fits within a greater framework of planned development priorities that seeks to strengthen health, nutrition, and water, sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) systems at national and sub-national levels.
To attain this intermediate result, the USAID CHA worked to strengthen the Liberian community health system to provide healthcare services in hard-to-reach areas while transferring the national Community Health Program ownership to the Government of Liberia.
The USAID Community Health Activity team further worked with MOH to improve access to and quality of essential health services and scale up COVID-19 immunization rates, with IRC implementing the USAID CHA to increase the coverage of community health assistance in underserved districts and communities in Lofa, Bong, River Gee, and Grand Kru counties.
