Ministry of Health and Sanitation The Republic of Sierra Leonne Archives

The Western Area Surge in Sierra Leone

With more than half of the cases of the epidemic persistently registered in the Western Area District of Sierra Leone, and cases continuing to rise, in late November 2014, the need for the ‘Western Area Surge’ was established.

The overall goal of the Surge was to interrupt the alarming upward trend with intensive community engagement and improved service provision over the period 15th December, 2014 to 31st December, 2015 in order to break the chain of transmission.

The Surge was designed around the inter-dependence of supply and demand factors within the wider enabling environment. In the lead up to the Surge, it was evident that the supply side was not adequately delivering services. A lack of trust in the health system and the wider response had developed which undermined any further demand creation. Therefore, the first step in the Surge involved drastically increasing the quality and quantity of all services, and communicating this to build confidence and encourage the public to come forward at the earliest possible stage.

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Resource Type(s)

Fact Sheet

Topic(s)

Social Mobilization

Language(s)

English

Country(ies)

Sierra Leone

Source(s)

Health Communication Capacity Collaborative

Ministry of Health and Sanitation The Republic of Sierra Leonne

UNICEF

House to House Campaign: Covering the Country in Sierra Leone

November 4, 2016/in Fact Sheet Health Communication Capacity Collaborative, Ministry of Health and Sanitation The Republic of Sierra Leonne, UNICEF Sierra Leone English Social Mobilization /by Brandon Desiderio

Supported and launched at the highest level, His Excellency the President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, went on National television and radio on the evening of 18 September and declared a “sit at home” for the period from 19 to 21 September 2014 to facilitate the implementation of the nationwide House to House Family Sensitization Campaign. Council chairmen and traditional leaders replicated this symbolic launch with similar events at districts and chiefdoms across the country. The MOHS, in collaboration with UNICEF, WHO, other partners, and line Ministries, conducted the campaign.

The goals were to:

• Achieve community ownership and participation in the EVD response;

• Engage the community in contact tracing and mitigating transmission risk; and,

• Lay a foundation for health sector recovery via interactive confidence building.

The objectives of the campaign were to:

• Reach 100% of households in the country with correct information on EVD;

• Increase community acceptance of EVD affected persons, especially children;

• Promote hand washing with soap at the household level;

• Rebuild public confidence and trust in the health system; and,

• Install neighborhood watch structures at community level.

Download Fact Sheet

Resource Type(s)

Fact Sheet

Topic(s)

Social Mobilization

Language(s)

English

Country(ies)

Sierra Leone

Source(s)

Health Communication Capacity Collaborative

Ministry of Health and Sanitation The Republic of Sierra Leonne

UNICEF

Hot Spot Busters, a Community Focused Intervention in Sierra Leone

November 4, 2016/in Case Study Health Communication Capacity Collaborative, Ministry of Health and Sanitation The Republic of Sierra Leonne, UNICEF Sierra Leone English Social Mobilization /by Brandon Desiderio

The “Hotspot Busters Initiative” was aimed at reducing and eliminating the spread of EVD in hotspot areas as soon as cases appeared. It became a key element of UNICEF’s response to the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. UNICEF and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS), in partnership with the Health for all Coalition (HFAC), a local community-based organization with a network of social mobilizers in the field, implemented this intervention at the ward level across the country.

How does Hotspot Busting work?

A hotspot was defined by HFAC as ‘any two suspected cases from a community’.

The activities of this initiative aimed to:

• Sensitize Paramount Chiefs and traditional leaders on the need for intensification of the EVD response in the hotspot communities, including dissemination of chiefdom by-laws on EVD;

• Undertake intense door to door community sensitization;

• Provide key messages via SBCC materials;

• Facilitate community referrals; and,

• Report on suspected cases.

These brief case studies reflect the contribution of numerous partners in the social mobilization pillar co-chaired by UNICEF and the Ministry of Health

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