The former President of Ireland Her Excellency Mary Robinson and representatives of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation yesterday took a conducted tour at the Cottage Hospital and Grey Bush Health Clinic to observe the fruitfulness of the Free healthcare programme since its implementation.
Ex-President Robinson during the tour at the Grey Bush, Ola During and Princess Christian Maternity Hospitals respectively, was accompanied by officials from the Office of the Vice President; including the Second Lady, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Medical Doctors and Nurses to get a first hand perception about the success and the way forward to achieve a national health concern.
Being the President of Realizing Rights Organization and a former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, she pointed out that it is a right for people to access available health facilities considering the fact that healthy citizens determine the success of a society.
She recorded that during her first visit to Sierra Leone in the 1990s, she was seriously perturbed by the kind of atrocities caused by the eleven years rebel war, through the amputation of limbs, sexual and gender based violence and other human rights abuses; and realized that one of the paramount ways to acquire human development is to restore human dignity in our respective societies.
In the same vein, she opined that there is need to support pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under five by virtue of the fact that the country is categorized to have got one of the highest rate of maternal and infant mortality in recent times.
Madam Robinson and entourage examined the Reproductive Health Division, the Maternity Ward, the Antenatal Clinic and the Children’s Wards and thus commented that “the free health care programme serves as a powerful example for the International Community, taking into cognizance the fact that in just less than three months of the launch of the programme, the initiative has recorded an impressive increase in the number of women and children receiving services as well as improvement in the quality of maternity wards and other health facilities through out the country”
The former Irish Fountain of Honour commended the bold step of the President of Sierra Leone, the Medical Doctors, Nurses and Civil Society Institutions for technical support and effort for implementing such a programme gear towards saving the lives of the present generation and generation yet unborn.
In a pertinent remark, the Second Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone Mrs. Kadia Samsumana appreciated the effort of Madam Mary Robinson for visiting the hospitals to observe and assess the status of the free health care initiative.
In questions responded to from the Press the Former President echoed her organization’s (Realizing Rights) support and further assistance from the Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Health (MLI) to ensure successful achievement of the Free HealthCare Initiative.
By Poindexter Sama