In late July, the government of Liberia announced a bold plan to deliver healthcare to the nearly 30% of its population that lives in remote areas more than an hour’s walk from a health clinic.
Under the leadership of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the government, assisted by a host of partners, launched a program to train and deploy 4,000 community health assistants between now and 2020.
Liberia’s Minister of Health, Dr. Bernice Dahn, noted at the launch event in the country’s capital, Monrovia that fewer than half of women who give birth in rural areas have a skilled attendant present during labor and delivery.
Under the new program, “these rural communities will have access to life-saving services and they will be empowered to mitigate potential health risks within their own families and communities,” Minister Dahn said in a statement.
By the end of next year, the first 2,000 community health assistants will be trained and deployed, according to the health minister.
The CHAs will be paid $60 a month – replacing the patchy volunteer network that now exists in some locations – and will be supervised by nurses and physician assistants. The primary goals of the program are to reduce maternal and child mortality and build a resilient health care system.
This is a big deal for one of the poorest countries in the world – a country that also had to battle the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in 2014. Liberia has a high rate of infant mortality (67 babies die out of every 1,000 live births) and a life expectancy of just 59 years. When the country’s decade-long civil war ended in 2003, there were just 50 doctors in a country of 4 million people.
Multiple partners helped Liberia’s government develop the details of the community health assistant program, including UNICEF, U.S. AID, Partners in Health, the International Rescue Committee, Last Mile Health, the World Health Organization and Mentor Initiative.
Dr. Raj Panjabi, the CEO of Last Mile Health, a nonprofit that works alongside the Liberian Ministry of Health, is a proud supporter of the new program.
“The Government of Liberia’s groundbreaking National Community Health Assistant Program will create thousands of rural Liberian jobs, extend health care to over 1 million people in the most remote communities and be a frontline defense that can help stop the next local outbreak from becoming a global epidemic,” Panjabi said.
“With other leading community health partners, Last Mile Health is proud to support the Government of Liberia in this historic initiative and shares in its vision of a health worker for everyone, everywhere, every day.”
Forbes has taken a special interest in Liberia. In 2013, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf spoke at the Forbes Summit on Philanthropy in New York and talked about the challenges she has faced in leading the country since 2005.
Two outstanding social entrepreneurs working in Liberia also spoke at that conference: Last Mile Health’s Raj Panjabi and More Than Me founder Katie Meyler.
Listening to these passionate individuals, it was clear that there are plenty of challenges in Liberia, but also an abundance of energy and drive to move the country in a positive direction. This latest effort by President Sirleaf is one more important step.
Report by Kerry A. Dolan , FORBES STAFF