A major boost for maternal and child health has landed in this peninsular fishing community, as the Ministry of Health officially took over the newly rehabilitated Maternity Unit and Patient Waiting Areas at Tombo Community Health Centre (CHC), handed over by the Solthis-led SHAPE Project.
The SHAPE Project aims to support national efforts to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity by enhancing the quality of healthcare services while safeguarding the dignity, rights, and overall experiences of women and adolescents seeking care.
Tombo CHC is the major maternal care facility for a catchment population of nearly 32,000 people, including over 1,300 pregnant women and more than 7,000 adolescents, making it one of the busiest frontline health facilities on the peninsula.
The rehabilitation has increased postnatal bed capacity from an initial 3 to 6, introduced a dignified childbirth unit fitted with new birthing balls and yoga mats to support respectful, woman-centered care, and delivered an improved antenatal care unit alongside a protected waiting area for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.
The health centre has also received essential tools to safeguard mothers and newborns, including an autoclave to sterilize instruments, a fetal Doppler to monitor heartbeats, neonatal resuscitation equipment to help babies breathe at birth, and a radiant warmer to prevent heat loss, together strengthening safer delivery and improving newborn survival chances.
Speaking at the handover, Dr. Moses, Director of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights at the Ministry of Health, used the occasion to renew calls for pregnant women in Tombo to move away from traditional birth attendants and deliver at the newly upgraded facility instead.
“For too long, many of our women in Tombo have relied on traditional birth attendants for deliveries that carry real risk when complications arise,” Dr. Moses said. “We are asking families to make a different choice, to trust the skilled hands and the modern equipment now available right here at Tombo CHC.”
He stressed that the facility’s upgrade was not simply a matter of infrastructure, but a direct investment in the country’s Triple Zero ambitions. “This facility is one of the frontline engines of our 300 Days of Activism campaign,” he added. “Every mother who chooses Tombo CHC over a home delivery brings us closer to zero preventable maternal and child deaths.”
Sierra Leone’s 300 Days of Activism for the Triple Zero goal — zero preventable maternal deaths, zero child deaths, and zero zero-dose children — is won at frontline facilities like Tombo, which serves over 1,300 pregnant women at a time. With maternal mortality now down by 32 percent, infant mortality down by 16 percent, and zero-dose coverage at 99.1 percent, Tombo is where those national numbers become real, as every safe delivery is a direct contribution to ensuring zero preventable maternal and child deaths.