The Gbomai Bestman Foundation Blog

Working on our non-profit status in Liberia

Since we touched ground, we’ve been working with the Ministry of Planning to officially register GBF as an international non-profit within Liberia. Our office space at The Liberian Government Hospital, opened during Gbomai’s last visit, was the last component we needed to establish to complete the process.

On Monday, we dropped off our articles of incorporation and bylaws at the ministry and now await to hear back from them regarding our official certificate. With this registration, GBF’s imported cargo will not be taxed by the Liberian government while we are working on our application for Firestone’s Cargo Donation program.

Introducing Dr. Mulbah

On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to touch base with, Dr. Mulbah, an advisor to our case study. It’s amazing to see how many hats Dr. Mulbah wears seamlessly. Not only is he a practicing obstetrician (we met him at his private clinic in Jacob’s town), but he also manages Liberia’s National Fistula Project, and is chairman of the department of OB/GYN at the University of Liberia. Dr. Mulbah, a proud Lofian, planned to join us in Kolahun last week but had an impromptu visitor from the UNFPA, who monitors the national project.

Dr. Mulbah shared that most fistula victims are between the ages of 11 to 20 years old. Fistula, a tearing from one canal to another, is common as a girl’s pelvic area is very small in this age bracket. Additionally, many of the younger women are giving birth to large babies. Dr. Peters has mentioned that the onesies in the MCPs should be bigger for exactly this reason – “African babies are a bit more plump.”

Dr. Mulbah also shared his perspective on early pregnancy and gave us a tour us his facility. This interview and others will be posted when Gbomai and I return to the U.S.

On Saturday, we extracted a smaller group of girls from our sample group for the next exercise. Instead of meeting at the Kolahun Public High School, we visited our girl’s neighborhood to get acquainted with her surroundings and close family.

Tomorrow we leave for Monrovia and I’ll debrief there.

Ahhhhh! Today was one of the most exciting day’s we’ve had in the field! Gbomai and I met 50 bright young girls from surrounding villages in Lofa. They proudly represent Kolahun, Massabolahun, Kortolahun, Tawalohun, and Fagonda and are bilingual like many girls in Liberia that speak Liberian English and their tribal tongue (our girls speak Gbande). The other 29 girls left early in the morning for the farm where they plant rice with their parents or guardians. Others went to the market to assist their mothers. We will meet them tomorrow.

Today’s agenda was super packed.

In a nut shell the following is what we accomplished:

• After a brief meeting with the IRC/GBF team, we decided to diversify the villages of our participant girls. We quickly mobilized with the Trained Traditional Midwives (TTMs) to gather more girls from farther towns, including Massbolahun, a 1.5 drive from our base.
• We explained the nature of our learning study and signed consent forms with the girls. Many of their parents/guardians could not sign their names so they “signed” with their fingerprints instead.
• We sat with the TTMs to cover case goals.
• We tracked down the principal for Kolahun Public High School (we found him walking alongside the road, just as we were about to give up!) and asked his permission to use his school for our exercises. He sent for a friend to open the 2 rooms and auditorium we would use.
• We toured Foya hospital with Dr. Rigo, IRC expatriate surgical doctor that coordinates & manages both Foya and Kolahun Hospital activities.
• We did a press interview with 102.3 FM, a local radio station that’s broadcasted all throughout Lofa and Sierra Leone (Lofa is one of the farthest counties in north Liberia, and borders Sierra Leone with Foya).
• At the end of the day, we got the chance to meet other expatriates doing great work to keep Kolahun safe like Makasa, a UNMIL troop manager for Foya, and Pakistani expatriats in the Foya UN/Pak Batt camp grounds.

I’ll do a special post on the amazing IRC team we have had tremendous support from…but until then, a word about traditional midwives. Over the last few days, it’s become clear to us that TTMs are really the cornerstone elders in many communities.

These women are respected by all for their work and are the gatekeepers to girls in the villages. Girls may not speak about sex with their parents, but they have no problem telling the village TTM that they have a few boyfriends.

As Anita and I were going through Kortolahun with Ma Pamu gathering the girls she identified, one girl in particular stood out. We stopped to speak to her about the baby boy that rested peacefully on her bulging belly. She was expecting another child and has only 16 years under her belt. But her age didn’t stop her from telling Ma Pamu that she didn’t see the use in walking “aldaway” to the hospital to give birth to her second child even though she had complications with her first pregnancy. She also revealed that she chose not to use protection with her babies’ fathers because ‘it can feel some kinda way.’

Reducing the maternal mortality rate may start by supporting the gatekeepers that have access to girls’ secrets. Back at the camp, Anita, Pierre, Gbomai & I talked about what that sort of support could look like.

After speaking with a few of the elders that passed in Kortolahun, one elderly man summed up their sentiments about the girls in their town as such: “The girls are getting pregnant plenty, and we feeling bad.”

“Will you be screensaver? // Say say, my screensaver, say say.”

This popular Ghanian song was our wake up call on Liberia’s Independence Day. The neighbors next to our bed and breakfast in Monrovia started celebrating at 8 am in the morning. I looked out my window thinking that I would see adult Liberians informally DJ’ing for Mamba Point (the area we’re staying in Monrovia) as they prepared for later celebrations. But instead I was surprised to see little children – they were dancing like no tomorrow! Truly, the independence day of the world’s 1st black republic belongs to the children as a lot of preparation goes into celebrating their country’s birthday. Gbomai and Paul explained that Liberians kids start planning their “26” outfits a month in advance – it’s serious business.

Although Monrovia had their own commemorations, this year’s formal celebration did not take place in the capital city. Formal celebrations in Liberia travel change cities every year. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s administration traveled to Voinjama, Lofa County to commemorate 164 years with other invited officials and African presidents. In fact, on our way to Lofa County the next day we met Ellen’s 17 car entourage on the winding dirt road to Voinjama as they were coming back from the UN/Pakistani camp grounds where ceremonies were held. I couldn’t take any photos as protocol calls for drivers to park their cars on the roadside until the ministers and Ma Ellen pass. Our driver reminisced a time when things were different during warlord Charles Taylor’s presidency he remembers having to get out of the car and turn away from the road, facing the woods, until his entourage passed.

Wednesday morning we were up bright and early to get started on our trek to Kolahun. We ran a few errands and gathered items we needed for the rural area we would be lodging. Kwachee, our case study support based at the International Rescue Committee camp, and Gbomai and I estimated that the ride would be about 5 to 6 hours as it was cleared for the President’s travel a week before. However, it took us a whopping 9 hours! We decided to kick off our case brief tomorrow when we could have all of the additional facilitators, the traditional midwives in the area, present. Until about 30 minutes till the generators were scheduled to shut down in the camp, Kwachee, Dr.Rico, and I talked Liberia’s upcoming elections, a crucial junction in continuing development in Liberia, Dr. Rico’s most interesting surgeries at the Maternal Care Hospital in Kolahun, and possible outcomes of our case.

I’m excited to get started tomorrow!

Today, Gbomai and a long time supporter of the foundation, Sonporina Williamson, leave for the foundation’s second trip to Liberia -  Ahhh, we’re are so excited to be making the journey back!

If you can recall from our Facebook updates in February, our first trip was quite eventful as we met with Liberia’s Minister of  Health to talk about GBF’s intentions, medical professionals at the The Liberian Goverment Hospital of Tubmanburg, and held a special ceremony for our first maternal ward adoption. In case you recently joined us in our support for Liberian mothers and children subject to maternal and child mortality, you can take a look at photos from our first trip here! We were so grateful to have connected with people like Dr. Peters, the resident doctor of Liberian Hospital, who even visited us this summer when she was selected to attend a special health conference at Yale University – she has inspired us beyond words to continue our work! However, our most proud connections were made with the expecting mothers of the clinics we visited in Tubmanburg. Their response to items you helped us purchase or donated to the Maternal Care Packages was so positive and appreciative. More than this, the resilience and courage they wear daily despite the challenges they face, inspires us even more!

If you haven’t joined us on Facebook, please do, as we will be posting pictures and short updates on the progression of Gbomai and Sonporina’s trip!

We’re off to the airport NOW – catch our minute-to-minute updates here!