Support for Alice's Children
Donation protected
My name is Edward Vandi and I was a work colleague of Alice Moody. I am currently based in Reading in United Kingdom. My aim is to reach friends who knew and worked with Alice and sympathizers who will provide finincial support for help her children.
Alice Moody and 20 others were the first Psychiatric nurses to be trained using European ideas in dealing with Mental Illness in Sierra Leone. In January 2015, Alice was posted by the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation to Port Loko as the only District Psychiatric Nurse.
Port Loko district is in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone, and is the fourth most populous districts in the country. According to the 2015 census, Port Loko District had a population of 614,063 and the district occupies a total area of 5,719 km2 (2,208 sq mi) and comprises eleven chiefdoms of which one Psychiatric Nurse; Alice was assigned. Travelling around these towns and villages can be very challenging as the roads, except the main high ways, are not paved.
Alice arrived in Port Loko at the height of Ebola virus. She then worked with Partners in Health (PIH), a non-governmental organization that came to Sierra Leone to fight the Ebola virus and help in re-structuring the health service.
Port Loko district had three Ebola Treatment Centers (ETC); one in Lunsar town, and two in Port Loko town. Alice was based at Maforki Treatment Centre but attended to the needs of patients in the other ETC’s in the district. On daily basis, Alice will dress in the personal protective equipment (PPE) to see patients in the red zone. The red zone was an area where patients confirmed with the infection are care for. She attend both to patients and relatives providing psychosocial support in the district.
Alice attended meetings at the Command Center that was based in Port Loko town. She was a member of the Psychosocial Pillar body; a body that coordinated the activities of all the organizations that was helping to treat Ebola virus in the district. She liaised with other organizations to care for orphans and vulnerable children that were placed in the Interim Care Centers. Some patients were not fortunate to reach hospital when they died. Alice will be contacted and she will assess the children and Careers and make referrals to the appropriate bodies. Alice would spend the day looking for food for the orphans and the children left in the community. She was heavily involved in teaching and training key stock holders in responding to the needs of the vulnerable in Port Loko district. As the only Psychiatric Nurse serving this community, she also went around the district assessing patients, relatives, careers, and referring patients when there was the need.
Sadly, in May 2016, Alice died after a caesarean Session but the baby survived. She left two children; aged 14 and the one she delivered by caesarean. Alice’s children are now in the same situation as those children she had spent her short life caring for children who had lost parents and care givers. It is difficult growing up in an environment still recovering from the aftermath of civil war, Ebola virus, and economic hardship but it’s worse growing up without a mother who was the bread winner for the family.
Alice Moody and 20 others were the first Psychiatric nurses to be trained using European ideas in dealing with Mental Illness in Sierra Leone. In January 2015, Alice was posted by the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation to Port Loko as the only District Psychiatric Nurse.
Port Loko district is in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone, and is the fourth most populous districts in the country. According to the 2015 census, Port Loko District had a population of 614,063 and the district occupies a total area of 5,719 km2 (2,208 sq mi) and comprises eleven chiefdoms of which one Psychiatric Nurse; Alice was assigned. Travelling around these towns and villages can be very challenging as the roads, except the main high ways, are not paved.
Alice arrived in Port Loko at the height of Ebola virus. She then worked with Partners in Health (PIH), a non-governmental organization that came to Sierra Leone to fight the Ebola virus and help in re-structuring the health service.
Port Loko district had three Ebola Treatment Centers (ETC); one in Lunsar town, and two in Port Loko town. Alice was based at Maforki Treatment Centre but attended to the needs of patients in the other ETC’s in the district. On daily basis, Alice will dress in the personal protective equipment (PPE) to see patients in the red zone. The red zone was an area where patients confirmed with the infection are care for. She attend both to patients and relatives providing psychosocial support in the district.
Alice attended meetings at the Command Center that was based in Port Loko town. She was a member of the Psychosocial Pillar body; a body that coordinated the activities of all the organizations that was helping to treat Ebola virus in the district. She liaised with other organizations to care for orphans and vulnerable children that were placed in the Interim Care Centers. Some patients were not fortunate to reach hospital when they died. Alice will be contacted and she will assess the children and Careers and make referrals to the appropriate bodies. Alice would spend the day looking for food for the orphans and the children left in the community. She was heavily involved in teaching and training key stock holders in responding to the needs of the vulnerable in Port Loko district. As the only Psychiatric Nurse serving this community, she also went around the district assessing patients, relatives, careers, and referring patients when there was the need.
Sadly, in May 2016, Alice died after a caesarean Session but the baby survived. She left two children; aged 14 and the one she delivered by caesarean. Alice’s children are now in the same situation as those children she had spent her short life caring for children who had lost parents and care givers. It is difficult growing up in an environment still recovering from the aftermath of civil war, Ebola virus, and economic hardship but it’s worse growing up without a mother who was the bread winner for the family.
Organizer
Edward Vandi
Organizer
