Emergency response

Our Activities

March 2014 marked the beginning of what was to become the most devastating epidemic in recent history. Sierra Leone was the worst affected country during the 2014 – 2015 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak with more than 14,000 confirmed cases and nearly 4000 deaths. The EVD outbreak decimated the countries health infrastructure and served to highlight the severe challenges already faced; limited health workforces (in numbers and quality), ineffective supply chains and challenged management systems.
Welbodi Partnership was well placed to respond effectively - we expanded our operations from our flagship partnership in Ola During Children’s Hospital to include Rokupa Government Hospital and Princess Christian Maternity Hospital. Within weeks, Infection Prevention Control (IPC) Teams were in place. An Infection Control Mentor from Welbodi Partnership was paired with a local Infection Control Focal Person in each facility to build capacity and create a sustainable staff-led patient safety programme. For two years, the IPC teams supported patient-safety committees, audited practice, contributed to city-wide and country-wide monitoring and evaluation, and completed training of trainers. In 2017 all the mentors withdrew and left in place a 14-person team of Infection Control Champions in each facility.
Welbodi Partnership are not routinely an emergency response organisation but we made the commitment to remain in Sierra Leone throughout the outbreak. It was quickly apparent that it was essential for us to dramatically broaden our support to existing facilities and rapidly scale up to meet new challenges in order to help combat this deadly epidemic. It was an extremely challenging time in which we achieved many essential infrastructural developments and trained huge numbers of healthcare staff. Welbodi Partnership focuses our day-to-day efforts on strengthening the health system to reduce the impact of shock events when they occur.

Vital Progress

301 pregnant women were seen as part of the outreach activities in Western Area Urban district in the first month.
During the Ebola emergency response Welbodi Partnership expanded its support to three large hospitals within the Eastern area of Freetown: Ola During Children’s hospital, Princess Christian Maternity Hospital & Rokupa Government Hospital.
Training and mentoring of 1200 healthcare workers in infection prevention and control
Support of essential screening at the point of entry for all facilities
Comprehensive renovation of hospital water supplies, drainage and sanitation facilities at all site.
Construction of a mortuary, laundry area and re-instillation of the a well at Rokupa
Construction of a burn-pit incinerator to support safe disposal of hospital waste at PCMH and ODCH
Provision of hand-washing facilities and associated supplies throughout all sites for the duration of the outbreak
Provision of comprehensive personal protective equipment and waste disposal tools for healthcare workers at all sites
Supported the formation of Tok for Pikin Welbodi, a community based child health advocacy organisation, which carried out extensive community sensitisation during the outbreak.