Empower High School Students in Rural Liberia.

Join Us in Empowering High School Students in Rural Liberia with Life-Saving Skills. To expand our reach and extend this invaluable training to more schools, we need your generous support. With a donation of $2,500, you can directly contribute to the growth of our program, enabling us to reach more students and make a significant impact on their lives. Your contribution will not only provide these students with vital first-aid training but also instill in them a sense of empowerment and responsibility to help others in times of need. By investing in their education, you are investing in the future of rural Liberia, creating a community that is better prepared to respond to emergencies and support one another.

Liberia, a small country on the Western African coastline, is emerging from a fourteen-year civil conflict and an Ebola epidemic (2014) that overwhelmed its health system. Since the civil war, Liberia has had a chronic shortage of doctors which was further exacerbated by the Ebola outbreak, an epidemic that killed hundreds of health workers. Currently, she faces a chronic shortage of health workers. Liberia has one of the world’s lowest doctor-to-population ratios. According to a 2016 report by the Liberia Medical and Dental Council, the country has just 298 medical doctors to care for its 5 million population, a doctorto-patient ratio of about 1:15,000 (Ballah, et al. 2016). To ease the burden on the healthcare system in Liberia, the Liberians National Red Cross Society (LNRCS) has been providing First Aid training and kits across the country for decades. In 2018, the Red Cross trained over 138 persons nationwide, including law enforcement and fire service officials (NewDawn, 2018). However, this training excluded secondary schools with a high vulnerability to injuries and a greater need for first responders in emergency health situations. Secondary schools do not have First Aiders or drug dispensary departments for students nor is First Aid knowledge being taught in schools. When students get injured, they are usually sent home to be treated by their parents. Often, health situations are not treated in the early stages, leading to more severe injuries. The rural populations often have to travel to urban areas to seek support for emergencies thus increasing the burden on the limited health facilities, sometimes leading to serious complications that in many cases could have been stabilized or treated at their early stages if emergency care were given. I grew up facing the same problem at school. When I returned to school at the age of 11, I had just recovered from a long illness that had left me paralyzed for two years. Due to this illness, I would fall at school two or three times per week and injure myself. Whenever I sustained an injury at school, I was sent home because there was no health department or first aid available to treat me. My older brother, who was in 9th grade, had to leave class to take me home every time because, at my age, I was not capable of walking home alone. Not only did this situation affect my learning but that of my brother's, because he had to miss his lessons every time he took me home. It was suggested that I take some semesters off from school due to the impact this has on my brother's academic performance. Because of this, finding a solution to this problem has always been a top priority for me. It is my goal to ensure that students in Liberia can stay in school and learn effectively without missing lessons as a result of minor injuries. According to Miller and Spicer, “[e]ach year, 3.7 million children suffer a substantial injury at school internationally, resulting in an estimated $3.2 billion in medical spending” (2003). They concluded that data on secondary school injury causes are greatly needed, and this view is underscored by Spicer et al. who show how data can be used to build partnerships for school-based prevention programs (Spicer et al.

2003). Although this research is old, it was all that was out there, which shows that there’s a need to address this problem and continue researching this issue. This data highlights that there is a crucial need for the establishment of First Aid training and treatment in schools. A school without healthcare services is an unsafe environment. Children cannot play freely and learn effectively and there are constant worries that something terrible might happen, therefore there is no peace in such an environment.

Project Goal

To create a safe learning environment for students in Liberia, I want to establish a first aid ambassadors program in ten secondary schools in rural Margibi County. The purpose of this project is to train two students (6th to 10th graders) and one teacher/administrator in basic first aid from each of the selected schools so that they will be prepared to assist in times of emergency on their campuses. The training will include all the steps of basic first aid, such as danger, response, send, airway, breathing, CPR, and defibrillation, lasting for 24 hours. Because of the number of trainees (30), the training will be conducted at two centers with each center training students and teachers from five schools (15 trainees per center). Upon completion of the program, the selected schools will be given a set of first aid kits used by the trained first aid ambassadors at their schools.

Expected outcome.

Improved Emergency response culture and promote a sense of safety: The project will contribute to the community by heightened awareness and preparedness for emergencies, resulting in a proactive approach to health crises and referral to health facilities. This will also increase students’ confidence in providing First Aid. It will enable students to recognize signs of emergencies and aid when needed.

Reduction in injuries and mortality rates: The project will equip students with the necessary First Aid skills to handle emergencies in a much more efficient manner and improve collaboration and communication between the First Aid ambassadors in schools and external emergency response agencies. This project will reduce vulnerability to injuries on campuses. And eases the burden on local health facilities by reducing non-critical cases seeking immediate attention at healthcare institutions.