Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust is helping a brand new maternity hospital in Sierra Leone get up and running and has donated three ultrasound machines which will help people living in the country's rural Kenema district.
The new Nyayia Maternal and Child Hospital is a non-profit organisation which will look after women throughout their maternity journey - from before conception to after birth. The idea is to tackle "unmet rural community need" in the west African country, which has according to UNICEF the highest rate of maternal mortality on the planet.
In rural areas like those around Kenema, the problem is even worse due to limited access to medical facilities - and this is what the Nyayia hospital is hoping to fix. Magdalene Lebbie-Banya is the driving force behind the hospital project, and she said: "These ultrasound machines will really help us with diagnostics and therefore contribute to reducing maternal mortality and morbidity, which are among the highest in the world in Sierra Leone."
