Monrovia – The Lions Clubs comprising the Congotown, Sinkor, Cape Mesurado, Monrovia and Greater Monrovia, over the weekend donated several assorted medical supplies to three health facilities in Montserrado County.
The health facilities include: The Pipeline Medical Center in Paynesville, the Careysburg Community Clinic in Careysburg, and the Zannah Town Clinic in Todee District, Montserrado County.
The items donated to the health facilities include: Clorax, Masks, Thermometers, Examination Gloves, Sanitizers among others.
The Lions Clubs also donated bags of rice to the Peter W. Sayklon Orphanage Home in Margibi County.
The Lions clubs, a combination of five Lions Clubs, is a charity organization that cater to the blind, orphans and underprivileged communities. It is an international organization that is helping the needy around the world.
Speaking to FrontPageAfrica, Club President, Bernice Savanno said the initiative is aimed at helping health facilities provide adequate services to their various communities.
Ms. Savanno said the gesture is the Lions Club’s contribution and support in the fight against the deadly Corona Virus Disease (Covid-19).
“We hope that they will use these things for the intended purpose because these items were purchased with money, we raised on our own to support them and to buttress whatever government is giving them or whatsoever support they are getting around. So, we hope that they will use it for the intended purpose to take care of people in the communities who will fall sick,” Savanno said.
She added that the items were made available to the health centers through the support and contributions of the Lions Clubs’ friends and members.
“Last year, Lions Clubs of Liberia joined to do a charity venture where we sold tickets to our friends and members. The essence was to buy medical supplies to help health facilities in Liberia. And based on the success of the charity event, we raised a pretty good amount and we reach out to the Montserrado County health Officer and asked her to identify clinics that are in underprivileged communities that we can visit,” Savanno said.
She also added that initiative was planned prior to the Corona Virus outbreak in the country.
“We were reaching out to communities and clinics to help so when Covid-19 came, we had to hold on to see how we will understand the transmission of the virus before we can gather to come and make our donation. So, since Covid-19 came, instead of just buying medical supplies, we decided to buy some disinfectants, Cholera, Delta and others just to help save the environment,” Savanno told FrontPage Africa in an interview.
Receiving the items, the health facilities thanked the Lions Clubs for the kind gestures and promised to use the items for the intended purpose.
Stephen M.T. Lamah, District Health Officer (DHO) of Todee District, Montserrado County said the Zannah Town Clinic was lacking those materials donated by the Lions Clubs along with some essential drugs like the ORS, Parcetamol among others.
Lamah continued: “I’m so grateful, I’m so happy; I’m so impressed to have this donation to one of my facilities so that we can be able to save lives. Despite all of the situations, we all know that majority of the items brought are IPC materials that we will use to keep and save our communities. So, we are grateful, we are happy that the Lions Clubs can think about us in Todee District here,” DHO Lamah said.
Zannah Town Clinic is one of those clinics in rural Montserrado County that is seriously challenge and inaccessible to vehicles.
In order to reach the premise of the health facilities with vehicle, one has to drive through Kakata, Margibi County and use the Bong Mines Road, passing over the Du River to get to the clinic in District#1 Montserrado County due to the bad condition of the road leading to the clinic from Montserrado County.
According to a source within the facility, there is no vehicle for the clinic to transfer patients to bigger health facilities.
The source added that patients are transfer to bigger health facilities on Makate Rid due to the lack of ambulance (s).
“My brother, we don’t have enough drugs in this clinic. The only drug we have here is malaria medicine. Since January of this year the government supplied us, we have not received any supply yet. Even to transfer patients to other health facilities is not easy because we don’t have a vehicle to transfer patients, so we sometimes put them on Makate Rid or motorbike,” the source said.
The Zannah Town Clinic hosts more than ten villages. Driving from the main road (Bong mines) to the clinic is almost 30 minutes due to the bad road condition.
Commenting on the issues of lack of drugs and vehicle, DHO Lamah said: “Government has been doing her best, but you know that we as government workers cannot say that it is hundred percent been done. When it comes to the aspect of essential drugs like paracetamol, ORS and other essential drugs, government finds it difficult to procure,” he said.
He also confirmed that the Clinic lacks ambulance, making it difficult to transfer patients to other facilities.