Global Campaign Project Manager Vishna Shah recently visited Sierra Leone, a campaign priority country, to understand the change we have helped to bring about there.
“It was such a great trip, I learned a lot and was so inspired by resilience of Sierra Leone and its people! I returned to Sierra Leone after three years to write an impact story about how our campaigning work has brought about a change in the healthcare system.”, Vishna’s enthusiasm and joy when she speaks about her trip is infectious.
Vishna recently returned from spending two weeks in Sierra Leone, working with the Advocacy and Campaign team and our local partners Health Alert, interviewing and making observations on the impact of our campaigning. Together we have helped to bring about huge progress, securing a supplementary health budget through our advocacy work on budget tracking and building public engagement with the Free Health Care Initiative (FHCI). The FHCI, a policy which entitles pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under five to free health services, drugs and treatment, was announced in 2010 but has not yet come into law – however, as the constitution is under review approaches, there is now a great opportunity for us to play a key role in making this initiative official.
It was a busy week as Vishna visited the districts of Freetown, Kaliahun and Bo where she met lots of different people including the Deputy Minister for Health, hospital staff and EVERY ONE campaign ambassadors – local radio show hosts and musicians –who play an exciting role in our advocacy work.
She highlights a few key experiences and people that impressed her most during her visit.
The music ambassadors!
“We have incredible ambassadors who really believe in the work we do and work with us to promote the importance of the Free Healthcare Initiative (FHCI). They inspire people and give them a voice”, Vishna explains. Well-known local radio show hosts talk about the FHI, helping people to understand what it is, who has access to it, what their rights are and what services they are entitled to. It also gives people a platform to raise concerns and share information.
“There is huge engagement; people are very passionate about the FHI!” Vishna exclaims, clearly very impressed by the work of these ambassadors. “We also have music ambassadors –famous local musicians who visit chiefdoms in their district and perform songs they have created around our campaign messaging. “When I met them in Bo, they sang a song about the role of men in making sure that ladies take their medicine and that they go to see the health worker when they are not well. It was really amazing!”
Vishna witnessed how people listen to the messaging and learn about their rights, which is empowering for them. “The system is by no means perfect”, Vishna explains, “but it gives people a channel to voice their opinions as they don’t always feel they have access to the council.”
This sensitisation work has helped people see how they are linked to the FHCI. “It’s not just the mother, the pregnant lady or the under-five child who benefit; it’s also the father, or the grandfather who doesn’t have to pay for drugs because they are free. Everyone is linked to it in some form or way because it affects the whole family system.”
An ambassador of a different kind
When Vishna visited the main referral hospital in Kailahun – a district bordering Guinea where Ebola first entered Sierra Leone – she met another truly inspirational ambassador, this time a doctor. “Only one member of staff died in this hospital – so many were saved from infection because of the actions of this doctor. He had studied tropical diseases and was aware of the danger of Ebola at an early stage. He encouraged his staff to improvise with the resources they already had, such as wearing four layers of gloves to protect themselves – it was really amazing”.
The outbreak of Ebola in Sierra Leone in spring 2014 exposed a weak healthcare system and had a detrimental impact on the progress that had been made in reducing child and maternal mortality. However, it also focused the attention of health experts around the world on the need to invest in strengthening this system – something which we have been working on since 2011 with our partner in Sierra Leone, Health Alert.
Continue to campaign
Together we have helped to bring about huge progress, securing a supplementary health budget through our advocacy work, on budget tracking and building public awareness and engagement with the FHCI. We also do capacity building work with the children’s network, helping them to build advocacy strategies. “We provided support in pulling together a position paper and identifying issues, but the children were the ones speaking and people really listen to them” The children identified the FHCI as being the issue that they wanted to focus their advocacy on when they had a meeting with the President and the First Lady.
“The FHCI was announced in 2010 but has not yet come into law – however, as a constitutional review is under way, there is now a great opportunity for us all to work together to play a key role in mobilising the public to raise their voices and recognise their right to free healthcare”, observes Vishna as she goes back to continue writing her impact story.