 Educating Nurses, Bringing Healthcare to Communities
Sierra Leone has the highest child mortality
rate in the world with one in four children dying before their fifth
birthday. A critical shortage of trained healthcare workers contributes
to this problem.
The Nurse Education Program provides financial aid for academically
outstanding Sierra Leonean students to pursue nursing studies in their
homeland. These nurses will then return to their communities to provide
vital health care.
The first class of nurses began studies at Njala University in 2007.
They will begin working in the community in 2010.
The Nurse Education Program provides:
- Students with a quality nursing education that they otherwise
would not be able to afford;
- Graduating nurses with marketable careers which enable them
to move themselves and their families out of extreme poverty;
- Njala University with the resources to admit the academically
superior students who enrich the academic life of the institution; and
- Communities with nurses for three years immediately following
their training who will provide a vital resource in combating disease,
and child and maternal mortality.
Women’s Literacy and Vocational Program
Students learn marketable trades and the skills to put them to use. Each graduate receives a
start-up kit which includes the equipment and supplies to open a shop.
Practical Skills to Build Small Businesses
This program provides training in tailoring, tie dying and soap making along with the literacy
skills necessary to own and operate a small business.
Students spend four hours a day for the eight month dry season at the Calaba Town
Community Center participating in practical, hands on-training to learn a marketable skill
This program provides participants with:
- Practical, marketable skills
- Formal literacy instruction from certified teachers
- The skills needed to successfully operate their own small businesses
- Microloans for equipment and supplies to establish their own
businesses
Clean Water Program 
Without access to clean water life is a daily struggle for survival. Capped, hand-dug wells are
an economical and efficient way to solve the problem in Sierra Leone.
A Well Changes Everything
Safe, clean water transforms the lives of everyone in the community, from infants to the
elderly. Chronic illness is replaced with health; despair with hope. It is the first step to a
better life.
Many issues facing the poor are interconnected to water. For instance, women and girls often
have to walk for hours every day to collect water that is frequently contaminated. Because the
girls are spending so much time with this task, many times they are unable to go to school
and forfeit their chance for an education; probably their best hope for escaping poverty.
Digging a well addresses not only health issues, but education too. A well benefits a
community for years and even generations.
Calaba Town Clinic
IDEA is proud to co-sponsor this new initiative, an outpatient, primary care clinic in
Freetown’s underserved Calaba Town district. The clinic opened in February 2009 and treated
350 patients the first day.
Tackling Little Problems
The Calaba Town Clinic will helps address little health concerns before they become life-
threatening issues. This not only promotes the health of individuals and families in the
community, it frees hospital emergency rooms to handle more dire cases.
Clinic services include:
• Prenatal care
• Infant and well-mother services
• Wound care
• High blood pressure and diabetes screening
• Community health programs
Heifer Project International
Hunger and poverty are reduced through a comprehensive
combination of gifts of livestock, fundamental education,
and reinvestment in the community. The Sierra Leone Project
distributed its first animals in October 2009. An estimated
4,800 families will benefit by 2014.
Ending Hunger, Caring for the Earth
In 60 years of service, Heifer has learned that a holistic approach is necessary to build
sustainable communities.
“No-interest living loans” in the form of livestock help individuals and families start and
expand small businesses. Because these loans are repaid by passing on the first offspring to
another family, the benefits of this program ripple through the community.
The IDEA Foundation is a sponsor of the Heifer International project in Sierra Leone.
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