UNFPA launches reproductive health workshop
The United Nations Population Fund or UNFPA has launched a three-day workshop on reproductive health and how to regain good maternal health services in Liberia.
Speaking at the start of the workshop on Wednesday, January 21, 2015 the Officer- In-Charge at the UNFPA, Dr. Remi Sogunro, said, Liberia had good quality maternal health services prior to the outbreak of Ebola, but the standard has deteriorated.
Dr. Sogunro said the workshop is bringing together participants from five counties to exchange ideas and learn more about reproductive health. He made these remarks yesterday at the head offices of the Family Planning Association on 18th Street Sinkor, Monrovia.
He commended President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf for calling on foreign partners to assist the country in eradicating the deadly Ebola virus. The UNFPA Officer-In-Charge recalled that the Government of Liberia played a major role in combating the virus.
He noted that there is a need to restore maternity service across Liberia and recall those midwives, who abandoned work during the peak of the Ebola outbreak. He observed that most delivering beds in hospitals across the country are dilapidated and need to be replaced.
Dr. Sogunro stressed that every mother giving birth should come out of the delivery room alive, promising progress in the reproductive health system by next year.
UNFPA Liberia is currently supporting efforts of the Government of Liberia to respond to the Ebola outbreak, while buttressing high impact interventions aimed at ensuring the restoration of sexual and reproductive health to women and girls.
As part of initiative to restore maternal health services to pregnant women during the EVD outbreak and assure the rebuilding of confidence in the healthcare delivery system to ensure deliveries by skilled providers, UNFPA Liberia provided Emergency Reproductive Health kits to health facilities.
Meanwhile, at the end of three days workshop, participants are expected to be able to identifying contents of reproductive health kits, demonstrate knowledge on the link between reproductive health kits and maternal and newborn healthcare, among others.
By Ethel A. Tweh
