In the hospitals and health clinics in Sierra Leone supported by Bread and Water for Africa® there is a significant need to replace mattresses that are deteriorating due to years of use.
Clean, comfortable, and supportive mattresses are essential for patient well-being by promoting restful sleep and faster recovery as well as addressing the high burden of chronic diseases and the needs of post-surgical patients in recovery.
In addition, it is noted that damaged or aged mattresses in a clinical setting can pose significant risks of infections; maintaining high-quality mattresses are crucial for infection control in healthcare settings.
In 2019, Bread and Water for Africa® formed a partnership with Rural Youth Development Organization – Sierra Leone (RYDO-SL) to rehabilitate the Mokoba Health Center, and thanks to our supporters, by March 2020 we were able to report that “some 5,600 Sierra Leoneans, including 2,200 boys and girls, received healthcare services in the newly-renovated health center in the past few months alone.”
And as it practically went without saying, RYDO-SL program manager Joseph Kobba commented that the “new” 20-year-old clinic had been received local community “very positively, particularly by women, community partners, and the Government of Sierra Leone.”
And as Joseph stated so eloquently at the time: “A healthy rural community is a wealthy nation. Investing in women’s and children’s healthcare laid a better foundation for development and prosperity.”
In the more than five years since the partnership began, Bread and Water for Africa® and RYDO-SL have continued to grow and strengthen their collaboration in healthcare. Together, we have worked to combat malaria, provide micronutrient supplements to expectant women, and ship 40-foot containers filled with essential medicines, medical supplies, and equipment.
RYDO-SL’s healthcare partners operate health centers that collectively provide medical care to tens of thousands of individuals annually, a large percentage of them young children and new mothers, no doubt many of whom are alive today because of the treatment they received.
Most recently, earlier this month we reported on our joint effort with RYDO-SL to construct a brand-new Kagbaima Health Center to replace the previous deteriorating structure to serve a population of nearly 5,000 individuals.
Also, during all this time, Bread and Water for Africa® has been partnering with The Reuse Network (IRN), a collective of organizations dedicated to promoting and facilitating the reuse of good, primarily furniture and equipment, to reduce waste and support communities in need in the U.S. and around the world, to ship items including desks and classroom furniture to schools in Sierra Leone.
Today, we are partnering once again with RYDO-SL and IRN to ship 230 donated twin long vinyl mattresses valued at more than $84,500 to Sierra Leone, where they will be distributed to numerous health centers in the rural areas served by RYDO-SL. Our goal is to raise the $7,000 necessary to ship a 40-foot container filled with the mattresses, and more, to RYDO-SL this summer.
And thanks to the supporters of Bread and Water for Africa® our hope is that in the coming few months, patients in the health centers which receive these mattresses will be able to rest easily as they recuperate from their illness or injury.
