President opens new School of Midwifery in Kenema, Sierra Leone
His Excellency, Dr. Julius Maada Wonie Bio, president of Sierra Leone has today officially opened the new School of Midwifery in Kenema in the eastern province of the country.
The school will be the country’s fourth focused on midwifery and has opened with support from Seed Global Health (Seed) which has partnered with the Ministry of Health to design the curriculum and provided faculty to teach students.
The School of Midwifery Kenema (SOMKen) enrolled its first classes in September 2024 and includes some of the first ‘direct entry’ students recruited from high schools, with around 51 female and male students currently enrolled in training to become midwives.
The opening of the school reflects the government’s commitment to enhancing training and expanding the midwifery workforce to deliver better care for mothers and newborns while reducing maternal mortality rates.
Since 2019, Seed has been working with the Ministry to strengthen services for maternal and new-born health in Sierra Leone, focusing on advancing midwifery education and practice, with existing partnerships with the School of Midwifery Bo and School of Midwifery Makeni.
Seed provides skilled faculty to deliver comprehensive classroom and bedside training and has helped to design curriculum, standards and guidance to equip existing midwives with the skills necessary to deliver high quality maternal and newborn care and increase the overall number of qualified midwives.
Country Director for Seed Global Health, Mustapha Sonnie added, “through our partnership with the Ministry of Health, Seed has and continues to train a new generation of midwives with the skills needed to deliver quality care. This initiative aligns with our broader strategy to expand the health workforce and enhance the overall standard of health care available in Sierra Leone.”
In April 2024, Sierra Leone’s two schools of midwifery graduated nearly 160 new midwives, with Seed as the leading training partner, as part of broader ambitions from the Ministry of Health to increase the numbers of midwives from around 1,800 currently to 3,000 by 2030. Seed has also helped to develop a new preceptorship program and new standards and curricula for midwives.
Sierra Leone has made huge strides in recent years to improve the quality of care and reduce maternal mortality, which was once the highest in the world. Maternal mortality has declined significantly from 1,682/100,000 live births in 2010 to 443/100,000 live births in 2023.
Funding for the construction of the school was provided by the Islamic Development Bank through the Integrated Health Project Administrative Unit (IHPAU), the fiscal agency for the Ministry of Health.
