Mohamed Kallon Mansarey

Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry- Masanga Hospital, Sierra Leone

The partnership, which began in 2015, has improved the capacity and sustainability within the Sierra Leonean Health Service to improve resilience to future outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fever. In particular, the iCare project sought to use mobile device apps to increase community awareness of infection prevention measures.

“Medicine was something I dreamt of since I was in high school and it was a career I admired greatly. I wanted to work hard for my community and country to help save lives.

Through my work at Masanga I was asked to work with the THET iCare project which sought to train healthcare workers and community members on infection prevention control (IPC) in the wake of the Ebola outbreak.

The training was done across Tonkolili district, Northern Province, where the ratio between the number of health workers and the population is among the lowest in the country (3.98/10,000). Together with other UK based medical volunteers I trained more than 1,000 community members and over 300 healthcare workers.

Through the THET partnership I increased my experience, knowledge and skills and learnt that I could provide help to those villages that were neglected and were not easily reached when it comes to health service and education. I believe the project will serve as a turning point for me in my career.”