Lifeline Nehemiah Engages Pregnant Women on Preeclampsia

As Sierra Leone is ranked as one of the countries with the highest number of women deaths, despite major progress made, Lifeline Nehemiah Projects (LNP) in partnership with Well Bodi Partnership, under the PAPAYA Project, engaged pregnant women on the importance of accessing antenatal care to prevent Preeclampsia and Eclampsia.

The engagements, which started on Thursday 23rd January 2025, took place at Tombo village, Kuntor and Portee communities’ respectively.

According to the PAPAYA Project Manager, Mohamed Turay, in order to build a robust community awareness campaign on eclampsia, they have embarked on a community engagement with pregnant women in the above communities.

He went on that Preeclampsia is the second leading cause of maternal death in Sierra Leone, adding that it can also lead to stillbirth and growth restriction in the baby.

“The engagement aims at educating pregnant women on early access to antenatal care, timely detection to enable appropriate action, is critical in order to minimize adverse maternal outcomes. However, access to hospital due to lack of resources and traditional beliefs by pregnant women in these deprived communities, were among the main causes of eclampsia. Hence, the urgent need to step in through community engagement,” he said.

Michael K Benga, Western Area Sherbro Tribal Head, applauded Lifeline Nehemiah Projects for its relentless support at Tombo village, stressing that this is not the first time the village is benefiting from LNP’s project, as according to him, they are a beneficiary of the organization’s “2YoungLives” project.

Chief Benga furthered that community engagement, especially for pregnant women, involved all the pillars, and they were well positioned to be a partner and effectively contribute to the success of the project.

“We, as stakeholders in the community, have a major role to play when it comes to issues pertaining health, and by God’s grace, we will take the lead in the community engagement and make sure that each and every pregnant woman is part of the process, and the phrase: “leave no one behind,” will come to pass,” he ended.

Speaking on behalf of religious leaders, Chief Imam at Tombo village Central Mosque said that they have put modalities in place in spreading the message to their congregation. The man of God went on that he will engage both Christian and Muslim faiths to work with the community and Lifeline Nehemiah Projects, so that they can help sensitize pregnant women during sermon hours.

The event was climaxed with a short film show and skit on the importance of antenatal care, wherein, various pregnant women shared morals learnt from the movie.

The PAPAYA program aims to improve early access to antenatal care through community engagement and empowerment, supporting the government health system in identifying women at risk of preeclampsia, and optimizing their antenatal care. High blood pressure or hypertension is known to be a ‘silent killer’. Thus, community stakeholders and the minority, often marginalized groups, benefit from this method of community engagement.

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