{"id":12108,"date":"2010-08-02T16:00:49","date_gmt":"2010-08-02T20:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=12108"},"modified":"2010-08-02T16:00:49","modified_gmt":"2010-08-02T20:00:49","slug":"former-irish-president-impressed-with-sierra-leone-health-care-implementation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=12108","title":{"rendered":"Former Irish President impressed with Sierra Leone health care implementation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The former President of Ireland and also former  United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Mary Robinson has said in  Freetown that she is very impressed towards the implementation of the free  health care implementation in the country.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The former president who is now a key  advocate to an organization she formed after serving the United Nations called  Realizing Rights made a conducted tour at both the Ola During Children Hospital  and the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital on Wednesday 28th July 2010 with a  key focus to observe the free health care implementation. It could be recalled  that Sierra Leone launched the free health care policy on the 27th of April this  year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The visit of Her Excellency Mary Robinson comprises of a conducted tour  at the Grey Bush Health Clinic and the two hospitals with an entourage  comprising the second Lady of Sierra Leone, Madam Kadija Sam Sumana,  representatives of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and doctors and nurses  of the two hospitals.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The President of the Realizing rights, Mary Robinson  said \u201cwith the launch of its free health care initiative, Sierra Leone has taken  a major step forward in promoting maternal health as a human right not only for  its own people, but also globally as a model of leadership and initiative in  this critical area\u201d. Madam Robinson stated that she is very much impressed to  see workable hospitals in Sierra Leone striving towards the free health care  policy of the President of Sierra Leone, His Excellency Ernest Bai  Koroma.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The former Ireland President and human rights advocate who also sees  health as universal human right said she was glad to see vaccines and medication  given to the patients that included children and women at the OLa During and PCM  Hospitals in Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The second lady of the republic of Sierra Leone,  Madam Kadija Sam Sumana on behalf of the government of Sierra Leone pleaded to  Her Excellency Mary Robinson to continued support to the health initiative in  the country.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sierra Leone\u2019s recent launch of the free health care initiative  for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under the age of five serves  as a powerful example for the international community. In less than three months  since the launch, the initiative has registered impressive increases in the  number of women and children receiving services as well as improvements in the  quality of maternity wards and other health facilities throughout the country.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The government of Sierra Leone\u2019s initiative was supported by many outside donors  and NGOs with both funding as well as providing key technical assistance in the  management of the program.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One of the sponsors of the Excellency Mary  Robinson\u2019s visit is the Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Health, a  program of Realizing Rights. The Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global  Health experience in the last two years in Sierra Leone has shown that support  for country-led and country-driven initiatives can result in breakthroughs in  key health care areas such as primary care for mothers and children. It also has  found that as the government implements maternal health programs and policies,  one important aspect is to place a focus on human rights which helps access to  quality health services, child marriage, women\u2019s rights within the household and  nation, protection against violence, access to education, access to earning  opportunities and access to family planning.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Realizing Rights was founded in  October 2002 by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland (1990-1997) and  former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002). Their  mission is to put human rights standards at the heart of global governance and  policy-making and to ensure that the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable  are addressed on the global stage.<\/p>\n<div><em>by Ishmael Kindama Dumbuya<\/em><\/div>\n<div><em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/div>\n<div><em><strong>Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The former President of Ireland and also former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Mary Robinson has said in Freetown that she is very impressed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,673,1],"tags":[2072,4478],"class_list":["post-12108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-national-news","category-uncategorized","tag-health-care-sierra-leone","tag-mary-robinson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}