A team from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) led by the Officer for JICA Project on Health, Nakama Naoko has paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr Alpha Tejan Wurie on Monday February 4, 2019 to brief him on their project on the health sector.
Briefing the Minister at his Youyi Building office in Freetown, Nakama Naoko said the purpose of their visit was to conduct a survey of the activity that is ongoing in connection to the Maternal and Child Health handbook.
She said they will also invite former participants from Ghana to hear their progress after the training programme, adding that they will also hear from the Directorate of Nursing and Midwifery Services to make comments on improving the training programme.
The Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, Matron Mary Fullah, informed the Minister that in their training and each training they have to choose a programme that they will try to implement in their country and chose Maternal and Child Health for several reasons.
She reiterated that maternal and child health were chosen because of the continuous care of mother and child up to five years and in some countries they are up to ten years and they would continue to use the book, adding that it will also give an idea to the health workers what services are needed and at all levels.
Responding, Health and Sanitation Minister, Dr Alpha Tejan Wurie said he cherished the linkage between Sierra Leona and Japanese government, adding that presently the Japan government has offer to build part of the Maternal and Child Health Unit in the country, and thanked the government for such an intervention.
He informed the visiting team that they now have a booklet that can be used to follow the child’s care from up to five years, adding that as they know their exposure to the use of computers which is strange and having to carry a documentation always disturbs putting statistics together. He added that with all the documentation on this booklet, it will help with data collection and improve on the health sector.
Dr Wurie told the team that graduating in Med Lab Science is the area he will like to focus on because the level of diagnosis associated with maternal and child care is weak and therefore the inter-relationship between laboratory technologist and the service delivery in the health care needs to be looked into.
He thanked the JICA team and looks forward to more cooperation in the near future.
