Thank Congress for Funding Humanitarian Efforts in West Africa

Dear Congress:

We want to thank you for recently reauthorizing funding that supports the humanitarian efforts of the U.S. Navy and organizations like Project HOPE. Recently, the U.S. Navy and volunteers from Project HOPE finished a two-month mission to train health professionals and assess health care facilities in Ghana and Liberia.

Africa is a continent in health turmoil as the AIDS pandemic continues reversing progress and life expectancy rates fall below 40 years in some countries. But some of the most often overlooked health issues that children face in Africa are the simplest to fix, such as repairing medical equipment in hospitals. Amidst efforts to reverse the negative health trends in the continent, it is also critical to protect the lives of children who are dying needlessly from birth defects, car accidents and other health issues that anyone can face.


But thanks to the U.S. Congress, which reauthorized funding to support humanitarian efforts in Africa, the U.S. Navy and volunteers from Project HOPE have been able to run a two-month mission to train health professionals and assess health care facilities in Ghana and Liberia. In visiting, assessing and doing training sessions in hospitals in the two West African countries, these heroes have been able to repair medical equipment and provide training in an area where there was previously little to no experience in dealing with pediatric issues.

One of the mission highlights for HOPE volunteers was the opportunity to mentor physicians and nurses at Liberia's John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Monrovia. The John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital was once the premier hospital in the region. Unfortunately, a drawn out civil war and political instability caused the once vibrant hospital slip into a state of disrepair. But Project HOPE volunteers worked side-by-side, teaching the latest health care delivery skills to John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital physicians and nurses.

Extensive use of the "train the trainer" methodology - in which local health professionals are taught how to teach others what they have learned through HOPE's efforts - has, over Project HOPE's history, resulted in the development of more than two million better-trained health care professionals worldwide.

By upgrading the capabilities of the health care providers, the health of the people will benefit in both immediately and in the long term. But this work could not be done without the unique partnership of the American volunteer, government, military, academia and business.

We thank you for supporting this extraordinary compassion of the American people, and for making an impact in the health of men, women and children who need it most.

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