MCHTC Preparations: Maternal and Child Health Training Conference
The focus of this trip to Sierra Leone was for Tenki to help organize, facilitate, and participate in the Maternal and Child Health Training Conference. This conference brings together organizations from Sierra Leone, the US, and Canada to teach a curriculum developed in collaboration with and maintained by the midwives of Sierra Leone.
Birthing Simulators
Tenki is proud to have been able to meet their commitment to helping provide birthing simulators for the conference and local clinics to enable high frequency low dose training. This was our most recent fundraising effort and you all played an important part in making this possible!
Upon our arrival in Bo, Tenki met up with several of the other organizations involved in the conference to prepare the necessary logistics and schedules for the week ahead. Matthew is seen here making a banner to hang outside the conference venue while Amanda, Maria, and Yasmin Vaughn from Helping Children Worldwide began the process of organizing all the ancillary supplies into convenient bundles.
The NMTs from Sierra Leone arrived and exchanged formal introductions with us and our counterparts from Embrace International, The Healy Foundation, CHAMPS, CHASL, and Helping Children Worldwide. We then formed two teams to tackle the two main conference topics: Helping Mothers Survive and Helping Babies Breath.
Helping Mothers Survive
Tenki took the lead teaching Helping Mothers Survive curriculum with assistance from the NMTs from Sierra Leone and two nurses from Canada’s Embrace International, Kari and Suzi. Before the conference began it was important for everyone to familiarize themselves with the schedules, equipment, and the materials involved.
Helping Babies Breath
This team is comprised of three nurses from Embrace International, Betty, Jasper and Liz, Carrie Jo from CHAMPS, and Dr. Andrew Justice, a pediatrician from the US, along with the National Master Trainers from Sierra Leone.
With preparations complete, we can’t wait to meet all the midwives who will be training with us for the next week!