News & Stories

In Sierra Leone, maternal and child health care services are being transformed through an initiative called Quality Essential Health Services and System Support Project (QEHSSSP).

Unchain, a new podcast miniseries from Partners In Health, explores Sierra Leone’s history—slavery, colonialism, civil war—and its impact on mental health through the 200-year story of its oldest psychiatric hospital. 

When a woman in labor arrives in a maternity ward with signs of obstetric distress, health care workers face a crucial choice: whether to pursue an emergency c-section. Because as soon as they decide a c-section is needed, it’s a race against the clock. 

“Limitless,” said Nurse-Midwife Isata Dumbuya, describing the access she had to blood as a clinician working for the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. “As many units as you needed would be available at the drop of a hat.

PIH launched mental health care at Koidu Government Hospital in 2019, training CHWs and counselors to provide therapy and medication, reducing stigma, and supporting patients in Kono, Sierra Leone.

In mid-March, when Dr. Chiyembekezo Kachimanga stood in front of a hushed crowd of Partners In Health (PIH) staff members and began talking about COVID-19, the disease had not yet made its way to Sierra Leone—but he knew it soon would, and time was short.