Training for Maternity Staff

A three-day training workshop for Maternity Staff on prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS is in progress at the BIRD Office at Diema Entertainment Centre in Kenema City. Participants were drawn from Kenema, Kono and Kailahun Districts.
The District Medical Officer Kenema (DMO) Dr. Yankuba Bah welcomed participants from the region and registered his appreciation to them for attending the course and assured them of quality training.
He told the participants that the high maternity rate in the region has caught the attention of UNICEF which prompted them to organize the workshop for Medical Personnel in the region. He advised them to treat the seminar seriously at all levels.
He then called on them to encourage the sick people to come for treatment at all times.
The Kenema District Sister at the Government Hospital, Sister Hawa Daramy informed participants that the main objective of the workshop was to train Medical Staff in the region to gain more knowledge on HIV/AIDS test to enable them get basic counseling methods and to disseminate the HIV messages to the Community.
Sister Daramy revealed that at the end of the workshop participants would have the knowledge of HIV transmission among women of child bearing age; and to reduce the infection especially from infected mothers to their babies and the prevention and management of HIV infection among infants and young children in the Community.
Talking on behalf of UNICEF, Madam Salomy Paul   called on participants to extend their knowledge to Community Health Centers in their respective Districts for the attention of pregnant women in the rural areas. She informed them that the workshop is conducted mainly for grassroot women who haven’t got the opportunity to come to Kenema City for tests to know their status.  She implored them to encourage every one to know their status. 
Councilor Augustine Nyagua expressed gratitude to the participants for their effort in attending the workshop and also to the organizers of the workshop for their initiative.
He called on them all to pay great attention to what they are learning during their course as they are the most important factor in human development.