The Minister of Social Welfare, Bendu Dasama Kamara (Mrs.) on Wednesday 19th October, 2022, officially launched the Training of Trainers workshop in Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) for health workers in the Eastern Technical University (ETU) and College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS) at the Kenema District Council Hall in Kenama City. The Ministry of Social Welfare (MoSW) through the Post Ebola Recovery Social Investment Fund (PERSIF) Project, an African Development Bank (AfDB) funded programme, supported the training.
The overall objective of the training is to strengthen the capacity of two Health Training Institutions (nursing schools) in the Delivery of Community-based services, including cross-border disease surveillance and response. As one of two institutions to benefit from the training of trainers, ETU was the first recipient of the sessions which earlier commenced on Monday, 17th October, 2022 at the 3K Guest House in Kenema City and concluded on Friday, 21st October, 2022.
Social Welfare Minister and the PERSIF Project Coordinator
In her keynote address, the Social Welfare Minister noted that building the human resource of health institutions is a key pillar for health system strengthening, adding that the training would certainly allow the recipients to acquire new skills, sharpen the existing ones, and enhance performance in the Sierra Leone Health Sector. She pointed out that training opportunities and career development are very rare opportunities in most places of work. It was against this background that her ministry through the PERSIF Project thought it necessary to roll-out this capacity building initiative that will transform the two nursing institutions as the bedrock of learning and developing skills for IDSR. She entreated the beneficiaries to be content in learning new ideas, reminding them that there are grey areas to work on within the health sector.
Madam Dassama-Kamara disclosed that the launching ceremony coincided with the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. This she said was the reason why she decided to give it the acronym ‘TILoP,’ meaning, Training for the Improvement of the Lives of the Poor. She maintained that being an advocacy event that calls for state actors to accelerate efforts on the eradication of poverty, the day has an inseparable nexus with the capacity building workshop. She bemoaned that the EVD, which gave birth to the PERSIF Project exposed the vulnerability of the Sierra Leone health systems with corresponding increase in morbidity and mortality rate. “Our health systems were very weak when the ebola erupted.
Participants at the Launching Ceremony
Today, as we emerge out of the ebola outbreak, it is sad to report that some ebola survivors are left with various forms of disabilities.”
The Minister revealed how since the advent of the COVID-19 in Sierra Leone her ministry has been working tirelessly with the Health Ministry to give response to social and health related dynamics so as to march steadily to achieve the fundamental goal of the Universal Health Coverage. Evident to this she said, was the effective coordination of the Mental Health and Psycho-social support pillar and the regular interface with survivors of the COVID-19. She further threw lights on the critical role the PERSIF Project has played in improving community response to outbreak. She underscored the passionate desire of the New Direction Government to see the successful implementation of the PERSIF Project and expressed sincere gratitude on behalf of His Excellence, Brigadier Rtd. Dr. Julius Maada Bio to the AfDB for designing the PERSIF Project to cover the two Mano River Union countries of Guinea and Sierra Leone which were adversely affected by the outbreak of the ebola virus disease (EVD). She concluded by reaffirming her unwavering commitment to supervising every facet of the Project.
Giving an overview of the PERSIF Project, the Project Coordinator, David Edward Lahai, said it was as a result of the need to put in place the right measures especially human and infrastructural capacity and the requisite health practices to respond to subsequent outbreaks as a nation that the PERSIF Project was established. The project he said was anchored on the Post Ebola Social Recovery plan. He expressed regrets that the project could not start (as initially scheduled) in 2015, due to technical reasons. However in 2019, the Government of Sierra Leone and the African Development Bank through a ‘’restatement,’’ agreed to roll-out the project. He elaborated on two key components of the Project i.e., Restoration of Basic Social Services and Local Economic Livelihood and some of the key interventions embedded in them. He noted that the then existing health services before the ebola outbreak were weak with very limited capacity in disease surveillance and the knowledge in responding to psychosocial challenges, health and water and sanitation facilities (WASH).
Social Welfare Minister amid Health Workers
The project he said, is benefiting district hugely affected by the ebola virus disease (EVD) especially ebola hotspots and cross-borders communities.
He disclosed that the project is new and currently rolling out its major activities with the Training of Trainers Workshop for Health Workers being one of these activities. He informed that the Project Team has been working with partners to build human and infrastructural capacities so as to enhance the system that would mitigate outbreaks and build on resilience. The PERSIF Project Coordinator further touched on the COMAHS Partnership to improve the capacity of health workers in ETU and COMAHS so as to better deliver on community health care service and IDSR. “We are delighted that we are giving the training to those who deserve it. ETU are the first beneficiaries and shortly afterwards, COMAHS will benefit,” he noted, adding that when the Project Team spoke with COMAHS, the response from the leadership of the institution was that the training could not come at a better time because it is incorporated into the curriculum of ETU and COMAHS. He reemphasized the expectation of the Project that the training would be well received and the knowledge acquired would be diligently passed onto others.
Earlier in his opening remarks, Chairman of the Kenema District Council, Mohamed Amadu Sesay, who chaired the ceremony underscored his profound appreciation for the initiative. He recalled that in 2015 doctors, nurses, and a considerable number of Sierra Leoneans lost their lives as a result of the ebola outbreak. This, he ascribed squarely to the lack of expertise and effective health infrastructures in Sierra Leone at the time. As he put it, “this is a service to humanity,” adding, the recipients of the training would be well prepared to transfer skills which would in turn engender effective response to future outbreaks and the saving of lives.
Chief Administrator of the Kenema City Council who delivered the welcome address on behalf of the resident Mayor said his task was not just a welcome, but welcoming experts that came to Kenema to deliver knowledge. In high spirit, he shed lights on the hospitality, ecosystem, rich forests and the wards and constituency divisions in Kenema, and admitted how proud and privilege for Kenema to be a beneficiary of the PERSIF Project.
A cross-section of the training facilitators and the PERSIF Team
Delivering the objectives and purpose of IDSR, one of the facilitators of the training, Dr. Abdul Karim Mbawah said IDRS is a strategy for strengthening surveillance, laboratory and response capacities at each level of the health system. He recalled when the ebola erupted in Sierra Leone, health practitioners were not better trained and prepared to detect and respond to epidemics. This he said necessitated the IDSR training to provide preventive measures. Capacity in IDSR as country he said, has diverse implications. He informed that the casualty in COVID-19 reduced drastically because of knowledge in IDSR even though 65% of the money spent when the COVID-19 earlier reared its head in Sierra Leone in 2020 went to technical experts from other Countries. He furthered that the recipients of the training are not only going to be prepared to transfer knowledge to those already in the field, but also to acquire the expertise so that when there are outbreaks in Europe or elsewhere, they would be sent there.
Speaking on behalf of the Vice Chancellor of COMAHS, Dr. Mohamed Bawoh, one of the facilitators of the training touched on the critical role the institution is playing in the health sector and issues of emergencies. He brought to mind how the development of the ebola vaccine was largely led by Experts at COMAHS. He proudly noted that the World Health Organization (WHO) approved the vaccine developed by Sierra Leonean experts, and it is now in use across the sub-region. The training he said, was not by chance as COMAHS has a critical bias in training personnel. Dr. Bawoh went on to state that with the PERSIF support, IDSR has formed part of the curriculum at COMAHS. He concluded by stressing that the college is a centre of excellence for in-service training.
Participants engaged in exercise after sessions
In his message, the Vice Principal of Eastern Technical University appealed to trainees to take research very seriously and consider it as an integral component of the training. This he pointed out, can be better prepared to ensure adequate prevention. The Regional Field Coordinator of IRC spoke on the essence of working as one in supporting health. Dr. Kapuwa of the District Health Management Team (DHMT) catalogued the importance of sound health surveillance system and how it would help reduce mortality.
Earlier on Monday, 17th October, 2022, Vice Chancellor of COMAHS, Prof. Mohamed Samai made it to the training center at 3K Guest House and addressed participants about the importance of the training and the effort already made by the government in disease outbreaks. He informed that when the ebola erupted, government paid key attention to healthcare facilities.
Prof. Mohamed Samai addressing participants
He mentioned the advice given to the government by the World Health Organization (WHO) to harvest in public health. This as he put it, was the reason why the COVID affected Sierra Leone very little. He reiterated commitment to investigating and conducting research on ebola. The recipients of the training he said, were not selected by default, rather they have the capacity to transfer those skills, pointing out that what the facilitators are training may not be new, citing other trainings on Infection Prevention Control (IPC) already conducted, but would refresh surveillance and response.
From Monday 17th October through Wednesday, 19th October various Tutors/Facilitators from COMAHS delivered lectures on several modules in IDSR. The concept of IDSR was first presented by Rtd. Lt. Col. Hassan S. Bangura and Mr. Ade Renner. According to these presenters, IDSR as a strategy adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) African Regional Office (AfRO) and its Member States in September 1998.
This strategy inter alia provides the pathway for improving health surveillance and response to priority diseases, conditions and events at community, health facility, and at district and national level in Africa. Public health surveillance approaches such as passive surveillance, active surveillance, indicator based surveillance, event based surveillance, facility based surveillance and laboratory based surveillance were presented by these facilitators.
A cross section of participants at the training
Dr. Joseph Edem-Hotah, another facilitator touched on the identification and recording of priority diseases, conditions and events. Other Lecturers.
Dr. Sulaiman Conteh and Dr. Isaac Smalle touched on other topics that focus on how diseases, conditions and events come to the attention of the health system and how to alert detection, triaging and verification, update district procedures for surveillance and response.
The subsequent sessions saw instructions on procedures for notifying a potential public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), data analysis and interpretation, steps in developing tables, purpose of investigating an outbreak / event, among others. Each session was accompanied with an exercise and/or breakouts and presentations and plenaries to assess the participants understanding and appreciation of the training.
