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Community Corner

Making a Medical Difference in Sierra Leone

Doctors Shekou and Fatu Sesay recently returned from a medical mission trip to Sierra Leone.

Led by two doctors of action, a local, nascent organization is doing its part to help the people of Sierra Leone access life-saving healthcare.

An 11-year civil war began in 1991 devastated the country's healthcare infracstructure, and now it depends on the good will of doctors across the globe -- like area physicians Shekou M. Sesay and his wife, Fatu Forna Sesay.

The couple, originally from Sierra Leone, began The Mama Pikin Foundation to provide a resource for some of the nearly 6 million residents in this tiny West African nation. In the wake of the civil war, startling statistics documented by global health orgnizations emerge.

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In their homeland, people can expect to live just 48 years. Some 192 babies per 1,000 births die before reaching the age of 5 -- the highest incidence of mortality for children of this age in the world. And, communicable diseases are sweeping through families virtually unencumbered.

“It's the reason we became doctors and got into the medical field,” said Dr. Fatu Forna Sesay.

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To that end, the Sesays -- married for seven years with three children -- named their burgeoning foundation "Mama Pikin," which translates literally to mother-child. It highlights the special tragedies that beset women and children.

In the early years, the couple supported health centers in Sierra Leone by providing drugs and mentoring. June of this year was the first time they took an extended time to collect used medical supplies from Kaiser Permanente, who they both work for, and Piedmont Hospital

“When Kaiser was switching over latex gloves,” Fatu Sesay said, “they donated the unused ones. We are extremely thankful to Kaiser and Piedmont for supporting us and donating supplies.” 

The medical centers also donated suture, gauze, vacuum devices and other materials to deliver babies. In total, the doctors shipped an entire truckload of supplies to Sierra Leone and donated them to the main pediatric and maternity hospital, along with a few other clinics across the country. 

“Our trip was amazing,” Fatu Sesay said. “It put a lot of things into perspective. It makes you grateful for what you have. A lot of patients had never seen a doctor before and were thankful just for Tylenol. Most people live on less than a dollar a day.” 

Her husband, who currently works at Kaiser Permanente's Snellville center, where he began in 2009, said returning to their homeland to work is awe-inspiring. He is the son of a former Minister of Presidential Affairs in Sierra Leone.

“It was definitely a very fulfilling experience to go back and work in the place we grew up in,” Shekou Sesay said. “I got to go to where my dad is from and see patients there. I went to a very remote small town, where they don't have a physician and are a good ways from anything major. It's pretty remote.

"There was a little baby that had to travel a few villages just to come see us. I had to see them quickly, because the child was very sick.” 

“We told the health centers we would be coming,” Fatu Sesay continued about that experience, “and the parents of this child heard about us. They walked from two villages away. She had a high fever, malaria. Being able to treat that child on that day potentially saved her life.” 

During their trip, the Sesays brought an assortment of medications and spent time diagnosing and treating diseases. The most common ailments the doctors treated were malaria, aches and pains, hypertension, diarrhea and abscesses. 

“It's amazing how big the need is,” Shekou Sesay said. “The basic things we did were really quite useful. They don't even know they have high blood pressure, much less have medicine for it. Malnutrition is also really high.” 

The husband and wife team plan to return to Sierra Leone every year. Now that they have established credibility by traveling and doing the work themselves, they hope that people will be inspired to give to their foundation. Once they have finalized the organization's charitable 501c3 status here in the United States, the Sesays will launch a website. Volunteers, the added, are especially welcome on medical mission trips.

“We are not aware of how other people live until we go," Fatu Sesay said. I left as a teenager and kind of lost track of what it was like.”

For more information, contact the Sesays at  mamapikinfoundation@yahoo.com.

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