MONROVIA – Four health workers have safely returned home after being trained on proving Healthcare for Ear and Hearing diseases in Zambia for the past ten months. The first phase of the training qualifies them as “Hearing Instrument Specialists.”
The nurses were sent to Zambia by the Church Aid Incorporated (CAI), the relief and Department arm of the Apostolic Pentecostal Church International, early this year. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 25 million people in Africa face hearing difficulties while technical analysis suggests that more between 5 and 10 % of people living in Liberia could be faced with hearing challenges.
Those trained in healthcare for ear and hearing diseases treatment include: P. Magdeline Konneh, a nurse from the John F Kennedy Medical Center in Montserrado County, Hannah Neawah, nurse from the Liberian Government Hospital in Tubmanburg, Bomi County, Mr. Dargai Iben Porkpah, Jr., and Mr. Moses Bimah, Jr. both of them are from Curran Lutheran Hospital in Lofa County. Magdalene and Dargai graduated with Distinction and were awarded the “Lecturer’s Award” by the Starkey Hearing Institute (SHI) based in Lusaka, Zambia.
Speaking in an interview with journalists shortly after a Thanking service organized by New Water in the Desert, the headquarters assembly of the Apostolic Pentecostal Church International for their safe arrival in country over the weekend in Brewerville, the head of the four health workers, P. Magdeline Konneh lauded Church Aid Incorporated and partners for such an opportunity afforded them.
She also expressed thanks and appreciation to Bishop Kortu K . Brown, who is the overseer of both New Water in the Desert Assembly and the Apostolic Pentecostal Church International, the entire membership of the church for the opportunity and their prayers while they were away.
Madam Madeline Konneh, noted that the training obtained by she, and her colleagues from the Starkey Hearing Institute in Lusaka, Zambia, is very important on grounds that Healthcare for Ear and Hearing institution is virtually non-existent in the country.
She appealed to well many Liberians and the government of Liberia for the establishment of Ear and Hearing Healthcare Department at each hospital across the country, so that people living with such conditions will receive treatment including people with infections, wax in the ear, low hearing ability, etc.
Madam Madeline Konneh revealed that the establishment of such program with the full collaboration of government will help to fully carter to people with hearing difficulties through treatment and counseling.
For his part, Bishop Kortu K. Brown, who is the overseer of New Water in the Desert Assembly and Apostolic Pentecostal Church International, thanked God for the safe arrival of the four nurses in country over the weekend. He thanked the partners including Starkey Hearing Institute in Zambia, Starkey Hearing Foundation in the USA, the Minnesota-based Don Martin, special Liberia humanitarian scholarship fund, amongst others.
According to him, plan is underway to step up discussions with the government of Liberia and some international partners for the establishment of hearing and sounds of an ear and hearing program that will incorporate awareness, assessment, treatment and training for both community volunteers for awareness raising and hearing instrument specialists in Zambia and other places.
Bishop Brown noted there is a need that people living with hearing complications in the country be cared for. He therefore promised that Church Aid will launch a “Campaign to Promote Hearing Healthcare in Liberia” that will incorporate stakeholders including national Government, Liberian Legislature, the Non-Communicable Division of the Ministry of Health, Starkey Hearing Foundation, Christian Medical and Dental Association, Liberia Special Humanitarian Scholarship Fund, religious, civil society and health institutions, etc.
Bishop Brown, who is Chairman and CEO of the Board of Directors of Church Aid Inc. (CAI) hoped that the campaign will help coordinate efforts towards actualizing the establishment of a “Community Hearing Care Center” (CHCC) that will engage in community awareness, assessment and treatment of people with hearing difficulties and training of community volunteers and health workers interested in becoming hearing instrument specialists in Liberia and beyond.
