“Professional and academic training for the consolidation of the blood transfusion system in Sierra Leone”
Sierra Leone
Status
ImplementationAid type
Project-type interventionsSierra Leone
Location
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€ 2,000,000
Committed
Committed
€ 0
Used
Used
Description
The project will support Sierra Leone's Ministries of Health and Education on strengthening blood transfusion services, working on several levels: health and academic-curricular training also for employment purposes at the new blood transfusion center; training of Recruitment Officers for education and awareness campaigns on blood collection. This with the aim of supporting the employment of health personnel through technical and academic vocational training. This project proposal would represent a third phase, the natural continuation of the AID 012590/04/0 project expiring in May 2025, which in turn continued the AID 011461 project that ended in June 2021, both funded by AICS. It is intended to consolidate and support the training of technical and academic staff working within the blood services and hospitals, therefore both laboratory technicians and future hematologists in three provinces in the country: West (Freetown), North (Makeni) and South (Bo). This strengthening will take place on the training side in two ways: a) by training hospital medical and laboratory technical staff through experts from the Transfusion Center and expatriate medical doctors; b) by filling a gap in the postgraduate specialization of Sierra Leonean doctors, namely the total absence of a School of Hematology. In fact, in the entire country to date there is only one hematologist trained outside the country. This activity will be carried out in partnership with Vita-Salute San Raffaele University (UniSR) and San Raffaele Hospital (OSR), which will provide Staff from the School of Hematology for training and will work on the creation of an ad hoc curriculum. OSR and UniSR will host Sierra Leonean medical resident and professors for a period of internship, as well as laboratory technicians from the future Bo Transfusion Center on fellowship. In terms of infrastructural and equipment support, to complement the provisions of the national blood program, the third Transfusion Center in the country will be created and made operational at the Bo Regional Hospital, the administrative capital of the Southern Province, replicating the lessons learned and know-how derived from the construction and technical assistance at the first two Centers in Freetown and Makeni. Finally, the project will continue to support blood collection campaigns aimed at the population with the purpose of educating them about voluntary blood donation, without which blood transfusion centers could not function. This last activity will be carried out in Partnership with the local association Waynpeed also with a view to increasingly structuring the professional figure of Recruitment Officers. The project targets are: medical residents, health personnel working in transfusion services and hospitals, medical professors, blood donors at blood centers who will benefit from pre-donation screening, and Recruitment Officers. Blood with its blood components constitutes a unique and irreplaceable factor of survival. Safety of blood products, in addition to protecting the health of donors and transfused, is the primary goal of a functioning and quality blood transfusion service. Therefore, there is a need for training in a clinical area new to Sierra Leone that requires qualified personnel to be employed in the national blood program network. The project was specifically requested by the Minister of Health and the Minister of Technical and Higher Education.
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| Year | Committed | Used |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | € 2,000,000 | € 0 |
Agency
| Type | Name | Channel code |
|---|---|---|
| Government | AICS - Italian Agency for Cooperation and Development | 11000 |
Channel reported
| Type | Name | Channel code |
|---|---|---|
| National NGO | AISPO - ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA PER LA SOLIDARIETÀ TRA I POPOLI ONG/ON | 22000 |
Project data
Sectors
Policy markers
SDGs
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