It is exactly five years since Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor dedicated the Sekou Ahmed Toure Health Center in Jorwah, Bong County.
Before the renovation of the war-affected facility, residents of Jorwah and its surrounding towns and villages used to cross the border to Guinea to seek medication.
According to the citizens, the situation brought untold suffering to them as they found it extremely difficult to transport pregnant women and sick patients to a local clinic in Guinea.
“She saved our lives, people used to die from small, small sicknesses but we now have a health center right at our doors. We will support the CDC because of her. We are not going anywhere else. Before our Ma Jewel Howard Taylor opened this clinic, we were really suffering here. We men used to suffer because whenever there was no motorbike, we used to transport sick people and pregnant women in hammocks” Peter Togbah, a resident from a nearby village said.
Togbah said life has become better for them since the vice President refurbished the facility and placed in it the needed equipment.
He stated that the health center has increased access to crucial primary care by reducing barriers and further increasing stronger community support and a cleaner environment.
The Panta Resident told KMTV Liberia that since the facility became functional, they now have the advantage of being able to arrive in the emergency room in just a few minutes whenever they have cases of such.
In a very exciting voice, he said that he does not need rice or money from the government but will support the CDC ticket because the current vice President had helped to save their lives.
“My brother as you can see, I am a hardworking man, I don’t need Jewel Howard Taylor or George Weah to give me rice. But the most important thing we had ever wished for is the clinic you see over there” he concluded.
29-year-old Gbarngo Flomo, who had just come from the clinic, could not hold her eagerness to speak with us (Journalists). She said if not going to Guinea or covering a long distance to go to the Naama clinic, herbs were their only alternative.
“We used to pick medicine from the bush, imagine treating a sickness you don’t know. Anytime we used to be sick if we didn’t afford car pay to go to Naama, we used to pick different leaves from the bush and boil it. We did not know that all these were the cause of our problems until the Old-ma built our clinic and Nurses there started telling us” she said.
Gbarngo said she lost her first child during delivery but five years since the opening of the facility, she now has two kids and were securely delivered by trained Nurses at the health center.
“Only someone who is cursed will not support Jewel after doing this great work. She was not even thinking about becoming vice President when she started the work. She never wanted anything from us because she was already an official when she started it. Now that we are enjoying it, we must pay her in 2023” she maintained.
“The Nurses are good, they talk to us well. They are not just there to treat us but they teach us about what to do and how to take care of ourselves”
With the over $80,000 USD in funding from the vice President, the Ahmed Sekou Toure Health Center was refitted by FAH Construction Incorporated.
The facility includes in and outpatient wards, delivery wards, a dispensary, and offices, among others.
The project was in response to pleas by the citizens to upgrade the facility which was left in ruins after several years of Liberia’s devastated civil crisis.
The citizens made a plea with Senator Taylor at the time to vouch for the people of Panta District, especially the residents of Jorwah, to have a direct access to an equipped, functioning, and viable health facility, thereby drawing her attention to their lack of access to medical services in view of the absence of an effective health care center.
According to our Bong County Correspondent who recently visited the facility, hundreds of residents are pulling in from different towns and villages in Liberia and Guinea to seek medication daily.
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