In 2015, your support enabled us to recruit and train CHWs to provide lifesaving health services to every community in Gboe District. For the first time ever, children gained ready access to treatment for common illnesses and there was finally a robust disease surveillance network in place to identify the earliest signs of an infectious disease outbreak. But we didn’t stop there.

We knew that CHW programs are most impactful when they connect patients with the broader public sector health system, but there was no clinic in Gboe for CHWs to refer complicated cases to. Where many considered Gboe too small or too remote to warrant investment, we saw an overwhelming need for lifesaving healthcare and we were determined to bridge the gap. With the support of generous partners like you, we committed to accompanying the people of Gboe and the Government of Liberia to open the district’s first clinic.

Not long before we launched operations in the district, the people of Gboe had pooled together community funds and started construction on a building that they hoped could be become a formal clinic. The local youth committee framed the building with bamboo and other local materials and covered the structure with corrugated roofing material. It was an impressive start, but the building still needed structural improvements, staff, and supplies.

As we launched our CHW program in Gboe, we also began working with community leaders and the Ministry of Health’s Grand Gedeh County Health Team (CHT) to set these upgrades in motion. In the meantime, we also worked with the CHT to send medical staff and supplies to Gboe for one week each month to run a temporary clinic out of the unfinished structure.

For two years, the people of Gboe worked diligently to complete construction. Meanwhile, Last Mile Health assisted with the transportation of building materials and the recruitment and training of local community members to serve as the clinic’s registrar, nurse aide, pharmaceutical dispenser, vaccinator, and laboratory aide.

Amongst these new staff is Victoria Goah, who was one of the first CHWs we recruited in Gboe in 2015. In recognition of her outstanding skill and dedication, Victoria was promoted to serve as the clinic’s nurse aide. Through two months of training at Martha Tubman Memorial Hospital in Zwedru, Victoria learned to perform blood pressure screenings, register new patients, and support clinical staff with patient care.

Once Victoria and the clinic’s other support staff completed training, the Ministry of Health recruited a talented nurse and registered midwife to serve as the facility’s two full-time clinical staff. With the structure complete and the staff recruited and trained, the final hurdle was to deliver medical supplies to the clinic and officially launch operations.

After traveling for three days through the deep mud of rainy season roads, the launch team finally arrived in Boe Geewon on September 6th, 2017. When they arrived, they found a town eager to celebrate the culmination of two years of advocacy, partnership, and determined innovation. In just its first month of operation, the Boe Geewon Community Clinic delivered five healthy babies and provided care to more than 400 patients for conditions ranging from malaria and upper-respiratory infections to life-threatening trauma injuries.

The launch of CHW programming and the establishment of a clinic in Gboe have demonstrated the magnitude of what we can achieve when we commit to innovating together with governments and local communities. We will continue to evaluate and refine our efforts in Gboe to glean valuable learning about how to design, build, and support health systems that enable people living in remote communities around the world to realize their right to health.

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