Liberia

The MENTOR Initiative’s Response

Emergency Refugee Response

With support from the UN Foundation, MENTOR has launched an emergency response with the National Malaria Control Programme, the MoH County teams, UNHCR, WHO and partner NGOs. Together, they will over the coming days and weeks train and equip health workers in all the MoH and UNHCR camp health facilities, mobilise a network of community based Malaria Agents to live amongst the refugee/host communities and to ensure that access to malaria diagnosis and treatment is available locally, in all the identified refugee villages. As this is rolling out to expand access to effective case management, our emergency team is also working with the refugee and host communities to train and mobilize large community teams to deliver large scale targeted malaria prevention and education campaigns across each camp and each refugee village, to reduce the risk of them becoming infected with malaria.

The response is flexible and can be expanded with more donor support, to meet the needs of more refugees as they arrive and to evolve the malaria control approach as this crisis develops.

The MENTOR Initiative has worked closely with the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) since its arrival in Liberia in 2003 when it began its activities during the conflict. Since the emergency response efforts in the early years, this dynamic partnership has included collaboration on updating policies and guidelines, joint planning, training of health workers and communities, development of health promotion materials and logistical support when necessary. The MENTOR Initiative has taken on a central role in assisting the NCMP to develop its technical capacity. This has been accomplished by direct technical support as well as the incorporation of seconded Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoH&SW) employees into The MENTOR Initiative country team in order to gain further technical and practical malaria control skills. During the period of collaboration there has been the successful introduction and implementation of the new and highly effective national protocols for malaria prevention with long lasting insecticide treated nets (LLINs), and diagnosis and treatment with Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT) – Artesunate-Amodiaquine (AS+AQ) across the country. This progress is a result of The MENTOR Initiative’s support of other partners working in malaria control throughout the country and their commitment to creating the momentum to scale up malaria control activities countrywide.

The MENTOR Initiative continues to be an active member of several health coordinating committees including the malaria steering committee (MSC) that meets on a monthly basis with a new sub-committee that includes the NMCP, The MENTOR Initiative, the National Drug Service (NDS) and Deliver/USAID, that has been formed to assess the current critical issues surrounding forecasting and supply chain of malaria commodities in the country. The MENTOR Initiative and NMCP management teams hold regular meetings to ensure that essential communication and collaboration is maintained. Each county in Liberia has received support from The MENTOR Initiative interventions during the past eight years.