USAID/Sierra Leone: USAID Rebuilds Kailahun Hospital

MARCH 11, 2004

USAID Rebuilds Kailahun Hospital

Once looted and badly damaged during Sierra leone's civil war, the main hospital in Kailahun, in the remote Eastern District bordering both Guinea and Liberia, is now providing health care services to the community thanks to rehabilitation work funded by USAID.

Kailahun District, a crossroads area bordering both Guinea and Liberia and an area from which the rebel movement was originally launched in Sierra Leone, suffered some of the country's worst damage to its essential infrastructure during the country's 11-year civil war. The Kailahun Government Hospital, the main health facility in the District, also suffered damage during the conflict as it was raided, looted and partially destroyed. The structure was also used as the rebel headquarters for a number of years during the war.

When Kailahun was secured by UNAMSIL, the Pakistani peacekeeping troops cleaned and took care of part of the hospital, using it as a Mosque before handing it over to the community in 2003 for rehabilitation and construction work to begin.

USAID, U.S, Embassy and Sierra Leone government representatives participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Kailahun hospital. Photo by Anna Piazza.

Sierra Leonean President Tejan Kabbah and U.S. Ambassador Peter R. Chaveas along with a Kailahun hospital nurse look on as IMC's Tatjana Zulevic and USAID's Julie-Koenen-Grant cut the ribbon during the hospital inauguration ceremony.

The U.S. Government has provided over $500,000 USD to rehabilitate the Kailahun Government Hospital, working through its implementing partner the International Medical Corps (IMC). IMC restored the war-damaged hospital by rehabilitating the maternity ward, kitchen, medical store and morgue blocks, and by erecting a new children's ward, a laboratory and doctors and nurses quarters. A new water system was also designed for the hospital's use.

The new hospital, built and partially equipped with U.S. resources, is now providing health care services to the people of Kailahun. Said U.S. Ambassador Peter R. Chaveas during the inauguration ceremony, "I am very proud that the American people -- through USAID, the Department of Defense and the Department of State -- have been in a position to contribute to the rebuilding and re-equipping of this hospital."

The rehabilitation of the Kailahun Government Hospital is but one of a number of activities in Sierra Leone's Kailahun District receiving support from USAID. USAID has also recently supported the rehabilitation of three secondary and two primary schools in Kailahun District, in partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

In addition, a consortium of USAID partners that includes the IRC, Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone (TDSSL), and the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), is implementing a project called "Na Wi Pot" ("It's Our Pot" or "it belongs to all of us" in the local Krio language) in Kailahun. Through this effort a new community radio station was built called Radio Moa. The Na Wi Pot project also recently participated in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence in Kailahun District, with strong emphasis on discouraging domestic violence and re-enforcing the importance of educating young girls.

Future assistance activities in Kailahun will focus more intensely on economic stimulation, with particular attention to the vast agricultural potential of the region as well as possibilities for providing employment to young people in Sierra Leone.

In addition to its work in Kailahun District, USAID has also supported major development projects in Kono and Koinadugu Districts. These three districts together comprise the special geographic foci of USAID's assistance efforts in Sierra Leone. These Districts were the hardest hit during the war, and assistance to these areas will ensure the greatest impact where development needs are most acute.

Story and photo by Laura Lartigue