Mike’s Liberia Journal
Summer 2019 #1
July 20, 2019 - Monrovia, Liberia
A few days ago, I returned to Liberia for first time since February. My friend and fellow Co-Founder of Partner Liberia, Scott, and I traveled together from the States. Our goal for this trip is to help the clinic we opened, the Oniyama Specialist and Teaching Hospital (OSTH), to expand. Because…the clinic is open!!
On my last trip, I focused on renovating the hospital building along with our friend Charlie. By the end of the trip, we had completed all interior renovations with only exterior painting and cleaning remaining. Since then, along with finishing the exterior work, we have conducted interviewing and hired our staff. We planned to operate primarily as an outpatient center for the first six months. We opened the doors for a “soft open” to serve the immediate surrounding communities two weeks before we brought the advanced laboratory equipment.
Our clinical team consists of two physicians (Mercedes and Wahdai-Mae), three nurses (Ruth, Naomi, and Vedela), one nurse aide (Fatumata), two respiratory therapists (Ruth and Joseph), and a laboratory technician (Michael). We have an urgent care/emergency ward, three treatment rooms (peds, OB, and general), a diagnostic suite, pharmacy, and laboratory. We also have twenty finished inpatient rooms, each capable of housing three patients; we are keeping two of them open for short stays patients until we expand at the end of the year.
It’s really quite something to see this place open. On our first day in the clinic, we saw twelve patients. We are now promoting the facility and accepting referrals. We are the only healthcare facility in the country offering several of our lab tests, including blood gases. Beyond patient care within our walls, we can offer these services to other centers throughout the area.
Fortunately, we have apartments within the OSTH compound and are able to work full-time without the usual burden of commuting through Liberian traffic.
We are also planning to expand the respiratory college, the Liberian Respiratory Care Institute (LRCI) on this trip. Not only has our campus expanded since we moved into the massive clinic compound, but also awareness of the profession has grown significantly in Liberia. More importantly, awareness of the value of the profession. Our graduates now work at the three government hospitals, two private hospitals, the Tuberculosis Annex, the Liberian Ambulance Authority, and several clinics (not including our facility). The country needs more therapists and is ready for them, so, we have to make more.
The greatest difficulty we face is the biggest problem in the country at the moment – the economy is devastated. It is hard to conceptualize the “economy being down” in one of the poorest countries in the world, but…it happens. It has been happening for about a year and a half.
Here’s some background - Both the Liberian Dollar (LD) and the United States Dollar (USD) are used in Liberia. The USD rules the economy in Monrovia, the LD is the most commonly used currency outside of Monrovia; wealthier Liberians tend to be paid in USD, less wealthy in LD. Within Monrovia, the LD functions as my “change” – if I am owed $4.50 in change from a purchase, I get 4USD and the rest in LD. Most goods that are imported (and Liberia imports almost everything, they produce very little for local consumption) are priced in USD. So, rice, for instance – its retail price in Liberia is based on USD.
A year ago, the value of the LD went from 130LD = 1USD to 180LD = 1USD virtually overnight. So, a 10USD bag of rice went from 1300LD to 1800LD. People paid in USD do fine with this…people paid in LD do not. This was a huge problem, big enough that starting over with a new currency was even briefly discussed (but ultimately this did not occur). After a few weeks, the LD stabilized at roughly 150 and stayed there until last month. While 150 is better than 180, it still is a rough economy for Liberians. By January, local businesses were suffering from a lack of customers. It hasn’t gotten much better.
Last month, the LD starting to climb again. When our flight arrived, it was 204LD = 1USD. Not much has changed since then. People are having a hard time…there’s just no money. But, we will keep trying.
Due to our fortunate housing situation, we were able to start working as soon as we arrived. Our first few days have been spent auditing the finances of the clinic so far, setting up the new laboratory equipment we brought, and seeing patients.
And this brings me to all of you who read this and support the work of Partner Liberia. Thank you! All of the expenses of OSTH and LRCI are funded through donations to Partner Liberia by you. Please consider contributing to support our ongoing work, we are not yet done. And, if you'd like to learn more about ways to get involved or the impact of your donations, please contact our Executive Director, Liam Carstens at liam@partnerliberia.org