The Foundation works to improve the autonomy and quality of life of people with disabilities such as autism, visual and hearing impairment. In other words, help with communication when the disability makes it difficult; give everyone the means to communicate by fighting in particular against social and sensory isolation.
It also conducts a major maternal and infant health program whose objective is to reduce the maternal and infant mortality rate; by allowing women in precarious situations to have access to the pre and post natal care they need for themselves and for their young offspring.
With this initiative in partnership with ICAP, women and infants have a better chance of surviving pregnancy and the process of childbirth. A multi-disease screening booth, “baby packs” and antenatal care are reducing maternal mortality in Sierra Leone.
The maternal mortality rate in Sierra Leone is in the top three highest in the world with 1,360 mothers dying in every 100,000 live births. The mortality rates of neonates, infants and children under five are also amongst the highest globally at 34, 82, and 111 deaths per 1,000 live births, respectively. These staggering figures represent the real and pervasive challenges women and children face in Sierra Leone with poor healthcare practices and sub-standard and ill-equipped health care facilities.
Maternal deaths account for 36 per cent of all deaths amongst women aged 15-49 years. These alarming statistics exhibit the severe state of maternal mortality in Sierra Leone.
The above statistics are the driving factor for the launching of the “Safeguarding Maternal Mortality Project.” Kroobay Slum community was identified as the area with the highest rate of maternal mortality in the country. Our partners ICAP and the Ministry of Health supplied health care workers to sensitize the community on the importance of antenatal care, proper IPC measures and other health services.
The Maternal Mortality project promotes antenatal care. Any pregnant mother that attends at least four antenatal sessions before birth is given a “baby pack”- a free start up kit with items that are necessary to the first months of a child’s life.
A multi disease screening booth was erected in the community that provides free weekly screening services such as monitoring of blood pressure, hemoglobin, blood sugar; and body mass index (BMI); HIV and rapid malaria testing; and comprehensive screening for COVID-19.
The project continues & in 2022, the project will be expanded to another high maternal mortality area.
When the disabled community were at their most vulnerable due to COVID-19 , the food items and other supplies donated to them proved we consider them deserving of all the same amenities as any other citizen.
At a peak period of COVID-19, when the government was forced to institute a lockdown due to the rapidly rising number of cases, the disabled community was placed in serious situation. Already at an economic disadvantage, this was heightened as the COVID-19 restrictions made it more difficult for the disabled to provide for themselves.
Vulnerable People Donations
At this moment, it was necessary for us to step in and assist our brothers and sisters. We identified several stakeholders: The Sierra Leone Autistic Society, Disability Rights Movement, Milton Margai School of the Blind and the National School for the Deaf.
The donation included gallons cooking oil, bags of rice, bags of sugar, bags of onions, cartons of tomato paste, and cartons of medicated soap. The donation assisted women living with disabilities in the provinces, students living with autism and children who living with deaf and blind disabilities.
Menstrual Hygiene Day
May 30th - Menstrual Hygiene Day is an annual awareness day on May 28th to highlight the importance of good menstrual hygiene management. MHD creates an occasion for publicizing information in the media.
In commemoration of Menstrual Hygiene Day, OSL Foundation, in partnership with Rainbo Initiative, 4Her Initiative and Girl Child Network, Princess Promise and Mama Pikin Foundation celebrated the event at the HQ Terrace, sensitizing the girls and providing hygiene packs.
