Health Fairs are community interactive sessions facilitated by Foundation for Rural and Urban Transformation (FoRUT) benefiting 60 communities in Moyamba and Port Loko districts. Health fairs are held once in every quarter at Community Health Centres (CHC) or Community Health Posts (CHP). They bring together health care providers (Nurses and Community Health Officers) from 10 health centres to educate pregnant women, lactating mothers and young girls on reproductive health information which includes family planning, nutrition, immunization, importance of institutional delivery etc. In addition to the health talks, beneficiaries receive services such as growth monitoring, immunization, family planning commodity and treatment of minor ailment.
As a result of the health talks and services provided during the health Fairs, 5,381 beneficiaries including 3,335 women and 2,046 young girls were motivated to attend clinics, thereby increasing their awareness of birth spacing and institutional delivery. This has contributed to increased safe delivery in designated health facilities, managed by competent health personnel. It has also contributed to the use of local food stuff for the provision of nutritious foods for under-five children.
FoRUT in collaboration with the CHWs and VDCs mobilized community beneficiaries to attend the health fairs. FoRUT also provided food for the pregnant and lactating women and their children and facilitation fee to the health fair facilitators.
“I am grateful to FoRUT for these health fairs organized in our communities. “As a result of these fairs, I and other women in our communities have healthy babies, know how to take care of our children and space our birth. Most importantly, we are no longer experiencing maternal mortality and there is a drastic reduction in infant mortality rate in our community than before” said Rebecca Squire (a lactating mother).
This significance of this story rest on the support provided to poor women in deprived and marginalized communities to access quality health services thereby improving their health status.
Health Fair Registration Pregnant Women by Community Health Workers