By Kemo Cham
The health NGO, FOCUS 1000, has inaugurated the national chapter of its community engagement arm - Kombra Network.
The Kombra Network, which is a coalition of religious leaders, market women, traditional healers, the media and civil society, is a grassroots organization that advocates for health service delivery and uptake.
The group works in collaboration with FOCUS 1000 and its other partners with the goal of achieving quality healthcare service provision for the most vulnerable segment of the public – pregnant women, children and lactating mothers.
The NGO’s main focus is maternal and infant healthcare.
The Kombra Network has representatives across the length and breadth of the country. In 2018 all the district branches were formed. The National Kombra Network is supposed to coordinate the activities of all these branches.
The newly formed body, headed by Imam Dr Ramadan Jalloh, was elected as part of the just concluded retreat of the staff of FOCUS 1000, held from February 27 to 28.
Dr Jalloh and his team are expected to mobilize grassroots support in efforts to sensitize people on the need to follow acceptable health seeking behaviors, particularly for pregnant women, children and lactating mothers, among other campaign issues that fall within the thematic areas of FOCUS 1000 and the Ministry of Health.
“This is a divine opportunity and Godly responsibility,” Dr Jalloh, the Imam of Masjid Rahman in the Fourah Bay community, said during the inauguration of the Kombra Network on the second and final day of the retreat which was held in the conference hall of the Charm’s Hotel in Aberdeen, Freetown.
“We are not wasting any time. Me and my team will meet straight away to start working,” he assured.
The staff retreat of FOCUS 1000 brought together over 60 workers, from the Chief Executive Officer to the lowest ranking worker, from all 16 districts where the organization operates.
The retreat, according to officials, was meant to inform the staff and the organization’s partners and board members of progress in its operations in the last two years.
Mr Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, CEO of FOCUS 1000, in a statement reiterated the need for the staff to continue upholding the culture of dedication to work and integrity which the organization had been known for.
“What I want to beg for is to keep that integrity, to improve on accountability,” he said, while speaking about how the organization had struggled in the last one year to operate under dwindling funding from international donors.
FOCUS 1000 was created by three retired former civil servants who worked in both the public (Ministry of Health) and private sector (UNICEF), with the goal of complimenting government’s effort towards proving quality and affordable healthcare for its citizens. The group tries to achieve this by advocating for policy changes and finance, as well as sensitization. It focuses specifically on maternal and infant health, with particular focus on children up to 1000 days of their lives.
Jalloh said as founders, they did not just come up with the idea to serve, but that they did so to also inspire the younger generation.
FOCUS 1000 was established in 2013, a year before the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic that ravaged West Africa.
Sierra Leone was one of three neighboring countries, including Guinea and Liberia, that were affected the most by that epidemic which claimed nearly 30, 000 lives in the three countries.
FOCUS 1000 played a major role in the national efforts to end that epidemic. Besides community engagement, it embarked on research and surveys. Its 2014 Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices study on the Ebola epidemic led to a major policy shift in the approach of the government and its partners to ending the transmission of the virus, by encouraging the involvement of the community people, particularly religious and traditional leaders.
Since its establishment, the NGO has completed over 25 publications, both locally and internationally. Some of it have been published in renowned international journals.
In August last year, the group was awarded the 2019 Behavioral Social Science Workgroup award by the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention for its role in a landmark study on the response to the West African Ebola epidemic. The annual award by CDC honors excellence in behavioral and social science research.
FOCUS 1000 also played a major role in the landmark achievement of transforming data collection in health facilities from paper base to electronic form.
The organization is currently running concurrently two major programs on nutrition, which are part of the national efforts to cut down on Sierra Leone’s worryingly high rate of maternal and infant deaths.
To achieve all this, the role of the Kombra Network will be crucial, noted Mr Jalloh.
“With the formation of this formidable group, we are now happy,” he said.
“We hope that the group won’t just ask about change and talk about change, but that they can also be the change we want to see,” he added.
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