Liberia
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Since May 2008 Mothers of Africa has an ongoing programme of educational support visiting Phebe Hospital in Liberia. There has been a school of anaesthesia there for many years, which Mr Fassah (nurse anaesthetist and head of the school) has done his best to maintain even during the 15 years of civil war. Mothers of Africa provide additional training and some equipment to support the present school.
Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the west coast of Africa, bordered by Sierra Leone, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, and the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2008, the nation is estimated to have a population of 3,489,072 people (16% more than Wales) and cover 111,369 square kilometres (more than 5 times bigger than Wales). There are 48 hospitals in Liberia and 22 nurse anaesthetists compared to approximately 116 hospitals and approximately 500 anaesthetic doctors in Wales.
Liberia was founded as colony in 1822 by freed slaves from the United States, the area was already inhabited by various indigenous ethnic groups who had occupied the region for centuries. In 1847, the colony of freed slaves (who made up only a small proportion of the population) declared independence and founded the Republic of Liberia. In 1980, the government was overturned in a military coup, and from 1989 to 2005 Liberia was in a state of flux, witnessing two civil wars, the First Liberian Civil War (1989–1996) and the Second Liberian Civil War (1999–2003) that displaced hundreds of thousands of people and devastated the country's economy.
During these times of civil war the school of anaesthesia in the capital Monrovia was unable to continue training anaesthetists and the school of anaesthesia in Phebe struggled with frequent moves of the hospital to “safer areas”. The civil war has meant that there are very few young trained anaesthetists in Liberia as either the training did not exist or they were killed. Of the 22 nurse anaesthetists currently in Liberia 12 are over 60 years old and 10 are middle aged. 10 nurse anaesthetists are based in the capital Monrovia (where there are 12 hospitals) leaving 12 anaesthetists to provide anaesthetic care for the 35 other hospitals in the country. Hospitals which do not have trained anaesthetists are either having anaesthetic care provided by untrained personnel, have surgeons acting in dual capacity or are undertaking no surgery (which contributes to the long distances that pregnant mothers may have to travel to have potentially life-saving surgery). This means that on a daily basis lives are put at risk because of a lack of trained personnel.
Mothers of Africa pledges to continue providing educational support for the urgently needed training of nurse anaesthetists in Liberia until such time as support is no longer needed.
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