Noah and Matt went with Hassan, Naakesh, and two other teams to visit several PHUs around Makeni: Tambiama CHP, Panlap CHC, and New Hope Hospital. They had a list of questions prepared to ask nurses and other staff at these health facilities to get insight on their duties, operations, and their knowledge and use of Ukweli test strips. Each interviewed person would receive two packets of biscuits as gratitude for their participation. At Tambiama, a public facility supported by funding from UKAid and other organizations, Noah and Matt were introduced to a State and Road Community Health Nurse. Nurses of her type are usually stationed temporarily at health facilities in rural areas and highways, but she has been at this location since 2018. While she has screened with Ukweli test strips before, she has not done so for the past 3 months due to the Nurse-in-Charge being absent for health reasons. The nurse also stated that their Ukweli strips were given away for free to pregnant women due to their expectation of free healthcare.

 

 

 

After visiting Tambiama, Noah and Matt traveled with the group to Panlap Community Health Center (CHC). This facility was recently upgraded from a Community Health Post (CHP) to a CHC, indicating it grew to a greater capacity facility, although they still did not have an in-house lab and had to send samples to larger facilities for analysis. Noah and Matt interviewed a community health officer (CHO) who explained that they now only used the free two-parameter glucose and protein test strips provided by the government instead of the Ukweli test strips, which they called “World Hope strips.” They indicated that the government strips were preferable because Ukweli test strips were given away for free to pregnant women despite being bought by the workers out of their own pockets. 

 

 

The third location visited was the New Hope Hospital, a larger private hospital. There, the team interviewed another Community Health Officer who has been working at the hospital for 2 years. He said that they did receive Ukweli test strips and that screening is performed by a lab technician. However, there are not many pregnant women in the area and no maternity clinic at the hospital. 

 

 

 

Today, Grace and Samara went with the World Hope International Cervical Cancer Research Team to observe some screenings at Branda Medical Centre LTD. Grace and Samara traveled to this facility with the community mobilizer and got to observe how he engaged the community in order to increase the number of women getting screened. He parked the WHI truck in the middle of a village and ,with his microphone, began announcing that women from 25-49 should come to the nearby hospital to get screened and treated for cervical cancer free of charge. The confidence and enthusiasm of the mobilizer really drew the attention of the community and was truly inspiring to watch. 

The next stop was Branda. At first arrival, Samara and Grace were introduced to some of the staff, including the doctor in charge and the woman who ran the facility. A WHI team member, Janet, then gave Samara and Grace a tour of the hospital which contained a variety of wards. There was a female and male ward along with a children’s ward and maternity ward. There was also a triage center and housing for the hospital’s matron. Once the introductions and tour was complete, it was time to wait for patients to come in for a cervical cancer screening. There was a little bit of waiting but then a few women came in for the free screening. Samara and Grace took turns observing the interactions between the staff and the patients, noting how the nurses were comforting the patients. The screenings took about five minutes and were very educational to observe. Overall, the experience was highly beneficial and intriguing. 

The Ukweli Team regrouped at World Hope and conducted a meeting with our distribution managers, Hassan and Jawara, to try and critique operations to increase sales. This conversation took a lot of brainstorming and gave us a new outlook on how Ukweli needs to begin to function.