©InfoBeatrice Sumo, 54, is an energetic woman. She looks after her seven children on her own, provides for them by vegetable gardening, and is also an enthusiastic first aid volunteer.
“The Red Cross has been opening the eyes of the town,” Beatrice says. “They recently built a hand-pump well. Before that we used to drink the water from the swamp. Some of the time we were able to keep it clean but not during the rainy season when it got flooded with dirty water. We appreciate the new well, as now there are no more problems with runny tummies and diarrhoea.
“We’ve also been learning about hand-washing – after going to the toilet, after working and before eating. And when children defecate around the home you have to clean it away, especially to prevent diarrhoea. It’s really important to wash your hands and make sure the children wash theirs. Also, it’s really important to use soap. Next to the latrine there’s water from the creek and now we keep soap there.”
Learning first aid
The Liberian Red Cross is training volunteers in first aid and now the community is better able to deal with a range of injuries and problems. As well as learning CPR, the volunteers learn how to treat wounds made by pangas (machetes used in farm work), how to make oral re-hydration solution to treat diarrhoea and how to deal with snakebites.
“One time one of my sons came running back to the house shouting for me,” says Beatrice. “He’d been in the bush cutting wood and something got in his eye. Other people came running too and said we must blow into his eye. But I remembered my first aid training and I said no, we need to tip his head to the side and pour water over the eye. After this incident people have really been interested to listen to me and I’ve been able to pass on my knowledge.”
Traditional midwives
In Liberia, there is often nowhere for women to give birth apart from in their kitchen. The Red Cross distributes razors and antiseptic and also shows women how to use locally available antiseptic. Beatrice says: “At the moment we have nowhere for the women to give birth and we would like a room built for this purpose, where the traditional birth attendants [midwives] can take the women instead of having to use the house which is very small.
“We also need help in getting more women trained as traditional birth attendants. At the moment we only have one old woman who has eyesight problems. We’ve been trying to get her to start training others but would like the Red Cross to help with this.”
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