(MONROVIA, LIBERIA – Friday, August 17, 2012) President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf met on Friday, August 17, with two visiting medical doctors assigned at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center. The two doctors, who are in the country for a year, are under a Chevron and Baylor’s College of Medicine - Texas Children’s Hospital partnership with JFK Hospital.
Also on Friday, the Liberian President leader received in audience a delegation of Hope Worldwide, Ltd., whose initiatives include programs in HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, as well as programs that target nutrition and education.
According to an Executive Mansion release, in receiving the two doctors, President Sirleaf welcomed and congratulated them on their one-year assignment to Liberia, and thanked them for selecting to serve the women and children of Liberia – the most vulnerable segments of the population.
The Liberian leader reiterated that Liberia appreciates all those who come to help the country after years of self-destruction. She said that all of Chevron’s help to Liberia has been good, but support that saves lives is most important. She hoped that the work environment would be smooth and conducive, to enhance efficiency in the work of the doctors.
President Sirleaf also thanked the JFK Administrator, Dr. Wvannie Scott-McDonald, for establishing the institutional partnership with the world-class Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital. Dr. McDonald expressed her satisfaction with the quality of the two doctors, and described their areas of specialty as high risk areas.
The two specialists, Dr. Yvonne Butler and Dr. Josephine Reece, will help JFK provide much-needed health care to thousands of mothers and children and also help with the training of hundreds of health care professionals. They will complement Chevron’s existing partnerships in Liberia precipitated over the last two years by Chevron-Liberia Economic Development Initiative, which has a queue of 54 projects focused on health, education and economic development.
Measurable outcomes under the partnership include the co-funding of an ambulance for St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital, the Children’s Under-Five Clinic at JFK Hospital, and extensive renovation of Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town. At Redemption, upgrades have been concluded on the Medical Ward, while upgrades to the Gynecology and Maternity Wards are in progress.
Dr. Butler was born in Liberia, but moved to the United States as a child where she was trained in the specialty of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan, where she served as Chief Resident Doctor. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.
Prior to joining the Global Health Corps, she trained as a University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Fellow in International Women’s Health and Clinical Epidemiology, based at the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia. She was a recipient of the 2011 Hippocrates Award given to a Resident who best practices the art of medicine, and is an Assistant Professor in Gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine.
Dr. Reece, who trained in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, completed medical elective rotations in Zambia, Uganda and Honduras. She is a graduate of the West Virginia University and its School of Medicine. She spent a month during her final year of Residency with BIPAI in Gaborone, Botswana.
President Sirleaf later received in audience a delegation of executives of Hope Worldwide, Ltd., led by Dr. Mark Ottereweller. He thanked the President for meeting with them, pointing out that this was his fourth visit to Liberia. The organization’s initiative worldwide covered programs in the health sector, nutrition and education.
Offering an overview of the organization’s work in Liberia, its Liberia-based Executive Director, Dorbor Mark Suah, informed President Sirleaf that their interventions will target the JFK Medical Center, and Catholic and Redemption Hospitals. He stated that Hope Worldwide also works with orphanages by providing food and educational materials for orphans under their care and protection. Liberia, Ghana and Togo are three West African countries where Hope Worldwide operates, in addition to six other countries across the continent.
President Sirleaf thanked the group for selecting Liberia as one of the countries to benefit from its work, and promised her administration’s support to groups that come to the help the Liberian people after years of war. “It is my hope that your intervention will help improve the lives of those affected by HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB and give hope to Liberian children by offering them a chance to be educated,” President Sirleaf concluded.
Mr. Jerolinmek Matthew PiahPresidential Press Secretary/Office of the President Department of Public Affairs Republic of Liberia email: jpiah@emansion.gov.lr/jeromapiah@yahoo.comweb: www.emansion.gov.lr
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