BARCLAYVILLE, Grand Kru County – The health sector of Grand Kru County, native home of Head of State (Dr.) George M. Weah, is suffering from constraints of insufficient workforce and logistics, the County’s Chief Health Officer (CHO), Dr. J. Woyee Wreh, has revealed during Press Freedom Day celebration in his County.
Grand Kru County is also the native home of the current President of Liberia’s Senate, Hon. Albert Tugbe Chie; and the ancestral home of the current Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Jonathan Fonati Koffa (Representative of District #2 of the County)
The conditions spoken on by the County’s Health Officer had lived through Dr. Weah’s first four years in the Presidency of the County.
The County had also been this ‘health way’ throughout Mr. Weah’s “multi-millionaire status” as an active football player with Italian Football Team AC Milan, when he was coming down on vacation to contribute to “national development”.
“Lack of motorcycle for some district and county level supervisors, as well as utility vehicle for the CHT (County Health Team), which is hindering regular supervision and drugs distribution,” the Head of Grand Kru County’s Health Office, Dr. J. Woyee Wreh, explained one of several challenges facing President (Dr.) George Manneh Weah’s native home.
He was speaking to an assembly of members of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), with residents of the County, on day two of the World Press Freedom Day celebration held in the County from 1-3 of May, 2021.
Dr. Wreh was speaking at a special media session, named Edward Wilmot Blyden Forum, organized by the leadership of the PUL as part of commemoration of the 2021’s World Press Freedom Day. The Forum was held in the Barclayville’s City Hall.
The 2021’s event was Grand Kru’s first personal feel of the PUL, through the World Press Freedom Day celebration, the Liberian Journalists’ Union was founded in 1962. Grand Kru County was created in 1984 by the Government of Samuel Kanyon Doe
Dr. Wreh’s topic for the Forum was “Health Sector Address”
Still on “Challenges”, as subtopic, Dr. Wreh stated: “Low budgetary allocation coupled with irregular and negligible disbursement of allotment for the CHT and all its hospitals and health centers which is having direct effects on the day to day running of the CHT particularly (vehicles maintenance, fueling of ambulances and CHT, hospital, health center, et cetera.”
On the third lapse, he announced: “Human Resource, manpower, low manpower at all of the facilities, especially at Rallytown Hospital and Sasstown Hospital.”
Grand Kru County’s Health Team is unable to “rehabilitate most of its damaged facilities, construct hand pumps, incinerators, and pit latrines amongst others due to limited fund,” Dr. Wreh said, revealing the fourth challenge.
The fifth ‘handicap’ Dr. Wreh reported to the press was absence of functional vehicles for the County’s Health Officers and two Medical Directors at RTH & STH.
He mentioned irregular and negligible budgetary allotment as sources of the challenges he was bringing to the attention of the body of journalists on World Press Freedom Day celebration in his County.
Dr. Wreh said Grand Kru County’s Health System is divided into five health districts under five Statutory Districts of the County: Barclayville, Trehn, Dorbor, Jloh and Buah.
On general manpower of the County’s health sector, the CHO stated the following: 395 staffs, 140 clinical staff, 255 support staff – 255.
“Of the 140 clinical staff, 102 are on Government of Liberia’s payroll and 182 of the 225 support staff are on Government of Liberia’s payroll,” he reported to the gathered press people.
In spite of the challenges, Dr. Wreh boasted about successes by his Health Team.
“The Grand Kru County Health Team, amidst the many challenges in the sector, has been vibrant in making significant strides and progress aimed at reducing maternal and neonatal mortality, improving immunization coverage of children, epi-surveillance of priority diseases and emergency response,” he said on “achievements”.
He praised his team for some achievements—on support from the Government, one of the County Legislative Caucus members (Senator Albert Tugbe Chie), and six of Liberia’s International Development Partners—USAID, WHO, Samaritan’s Purse, Action Against Hunger, BRAC (founded by Bangladeshi billionaire, Sir Fazle Hassan Abed), and Breakthrough Action Liberia.
He said Welthungerhilfe, through GIZ (German Cooperation), renovated the annexes of the Rally Time Hospital and Sasstown Hospital, as well as construction of four duplexes at Rally Time Hospital.
The support from GTZ, Dr. Wreh said, covers equipping of the Rally Town Hospital’s Laboratory, which responded to a confirmed case of meningitis and some measles outbreaks and detected and contained three episodes of measles outbreaks in Buah, Jroah and Dorbor Districts.
Dr. Wreh used the occasion to create a mental picture of the geographical boundaries of Grand Kru County—for anybody at the Forum with no knowledge about any of those.
On the current estimate of the total population of Grand Kru County, Dr. Wreh announced 75,877, quoting from the 2021 Projection from the Liberia Institute of Geo-Survey and Statistics (LISGIS)
He made a special congratulatory remark about Senate Protempore Albert Tugbe Chie for personally contributing two health facilities to 20 constructed by Government and Liberia’s International Development Partners, and for staffing of three of the County’s clinics.
He also thanked County’s District #2 Representative and Deputy House Speaker Hon. (Cllr.) J. Fonati Koffa for his contributions and for his promise to construct two clinics as fulfillment of his promised legislative agenda for Buah Jlateken and Bolloh Doe-Swen—two of the Towns under District #2.
Another congratulatory comment went out for Madam Nora Finda Bondo, Chief of protocol of the representative Executive Mansion, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for providing 500 gallons of fuel to the County Health Team. Dr. Wreh said her gesture was on fulfillment of a promise she had made to the County’s Health Office during the President Weah’s presence in Grand Kru as part of his County Tour.
“In light of this, we are asking that she extend her gesture by supplying us monthly,” the CHO made further appeal.
The Grand Kru County’s Health Office is currently responding to the outbreak of Pertussis, popularly called whooping Cough, in Jroah District, with 94 cases mainly amongst children less than 15 years, Dr. Wreh informed the assembly of County’s residents and media guests at the Wilmot Blyden Forum.
Their many uncountable contributions will never go unnoticed as they have significantly imparted the health sector of Grand Kru County to which we remain very grateful.
At the last phases of his health-related briefing, Dr. Wreh thanked the PUL “and all its members for the opportunity to speak at this forum,”
To the County’s body of representatives in Liberia’s Parliament (National Legislature), the young Chief Medical Leader stated: “We would like to use this medium to call on our Legislative Caucus to intervene and ensure the health sector receives its allotment timely and adequately.”
In public service, Mr. George Manneh Weah has visited his County two times—2017 and 2021. The first visit was for presidential campaign and for “promises”. The second was a ‘Presidential familiarization’, tagged County Tour. During the latter visit the Grand Kru County’s Number 1 native provided solar paneled-lights to a quarter of the County—his ethnic home—Sasstown. More than ninety percent of other parts of the County are still living in darkness as they had been decades ago, which is promoting rampant ritualistic killings—based on reports from the County’s local authority.
The Head of State has also provided road-related relief to the County’s residents and visitors by changing the features of (some) of his County’s roads from mudslide. Weeks to tour of his County, President Weah gave order to a road construction company, named SSF, to give a facelift to Grand Kru County’s link to Maryland County and the route that connects Grand Kru with Sinoe Counties.
However, many of Grand Kru County’s residents are not too excited with their Number kinsman—the Head of State—on his “first-priority projects”
“What Grand Kruans, living in the County, need most is a vibrant public health sector. When you are alive, you can see always see the President’s paved road and new solar-powered lights again. But, when you are dead, because no drugs in the hospitals or clinics, or because there was no vehicle to rush you to a government’s health center, can you see the roads or lights provided by the Grand Kru current number I citizen?” a member of local County’s authority said to this writer during a chat at a cooked food sale center in the County’s capital, Barclayville, on the eve of the celebration of the World Press Freedom Day.