Operations of our medical clinic

The mission house and medical clinic are completed structurally! We now need to furnish and get the medical clinic operational. We plan on hiring 20 different personal to staff the clinic. This holiday season consider giving a financial donation to our Sierra Leone Global Health Outreach so that we can get the medical clinic up and running soon. Click here to give to our operational fund.

Living Room in the Mission House

Front view of the Mission House

Work Space in the Lab

Shelving in the pharmacy

EBOLA must be stopped

Please click on the link below to read about what Pastor Daryl, the leader of the Sierra Leone Alliance of WNY, wrote in regards to how Ebola has devastated Sierra Leone and why the food program is so important.

EBOLA must be stopped

The impact of the food program

Our food program caters towards those in Sierra Leone who are quarantined. Orphan children are the priority when deciding who to give the food to. Per Phebian, other groups have been doing this before we started but ours is making more impact. The other groups would supply them with rice but no other ingredients to go along with it. They would run out of rice after one week and with 2 more weeks of quarantine ahead of them, they would eventually go hungry. So far, we've been able to help 38 families in the Kono district.

Our food program provides rice, fish, palm oil, peanut paste, salt, sugar and mayo. We give them enough for 3 weeks which is the length of a quarantine. We also provide bowls to fetch water in for bathing and drinking. This curbs the idea of running away and breaking quarantine because their basic needs of hunger and thirst are met. Please help us continue this program by donating here as well as sharing this blog with family and friends.

A father with the donated bucket and food

Phebian preparing the food donations

Donated food items lined up and ready to be delivered

Dr. Glick is cleared of Ebola monitoring

Dr. Glick has finished the 3 week Ebola monitoring required by the Erie County Health Department after his return from Sierra Leone, West Africa. Please click here to watch the clip taped by channel 4 news Buffalo. We are grateful for the favorable outcome and continue to pray for all those who are sacrificing their lives to help the people of Sierra Leone.

Five orphaned children receive more than food from our food program

 The food program continues to help those in need especially the orphans who've tragically and suddenly lost their parents to Ebola. Being an orphan in Sierra Leone is devastating because already the living conditions are tight and food is scarce. More often then not, they are left to fend for themselves and they are at risk of being trafficked. There are no children s shelters, government food programs, or foster care in Sierra Leone.

There were 5 orphaned children in particular whom Phebian recently reached out to help. She felt called to help beyond providing them with food due to their tragic situation. They were living in a makeshift structure with their grandmother. Their parents had died recently from Ebola and the government burned down their house along with their few belongings in an attempt to rid the area of Ebola. They literally had nothing except the clothes on their backs. Can you imagine? Your parents die, your house gets burned down, and you're left to fend for yourself. The situation seemed hopeless.

Phebian felt a deep compassion for them as she reached out to help. She decided to buy them more than just food but got them 3 savanna grass mattresses, 2 chairs, 2 buckets, 3 blankets, 6 bed linens, and some used clothing. This act of kindness brought them hope to their hopeless situation. Phebian had a meeting with the community leaders to call them to commitment in showing care and concern for these children. She was their advocate and as a result they will be cared for. She tangibly acted out the call of Christ Jesus to serve the least of these in the community. That is what this food program is all about.

We are still collecting donations. The need is great and any amount helps. If you would like to give to our food program, please do so here.

The five orphaned children

After receiving the donated items

Phebian speaking with community leaders

EKG Machine!

Henry Schein, our medical supplies distributor, donated an EKG machine to our Sierra Leone mission. It was donated just in time to get put on the crate that was loaded and shipped out last Saturday. Below is a picture of Seth, one of our RN's receiving it from Cheryl, the H.S. Rep. We are continually blessed by the generosity of our supporters and are still collecting financial donations for the on the ground operational expenses. Click here to give.

The Container is on its way to Sierra Leone!

A big thank you to Pat Mellody, our Jericho Road team, and everyone who has given in some way to get this 40 foot container filled, loaded, and on it's way.

100% of the contents in this container will be useful to Phebian and our team in Kono District. It will be incredibly helpful! The Adama Martha Memorial Clinic will open its doors in January because so many people have continued to be faithful.

Please keep Phebian, our team, and the people of West Africa in your prayers.

Our Founder's Recent Trip to Sierra Leone and Our Response to the Ebola Crisis

We know there is a lot of fear about the threat of Ebola within our country right now. Fear is a natural response, especially when one feels their personal health may be at risk. Recognizing how confusing it may be, we want to help the general public to better grasp the scientific understanding of Ebola, how it spreads and where the risk really is. We are 100% committed to the health and wellbeing of our local community. To learn more about precautions that we are taking at JRCHC and review some resources and factsheets from the CDC, visit our website.

We appreciated the honest exploration of Ebola and the public’s concerns on @WBBZ-TV’s #PoliticalBuzz last week, with Host Phil Arno and our founder Dr. Myron Glick. To hear his response firsthand, we encourage you to watch and listen to this program that was taped last week.

Here are some highlights from the program:Because there are so many mixed messages and speculation out there as the to risks of Ebola, the host asks Dr. Glick definitely how the disease is transmitted. “What we know is that Ebola is spread by physical contact with the bodily fluids of someone who has Ebola, who is sick, or their dead bodies. So while the virus is highly infectious, …it’s not the kind of virus, like the flu virus, that is spread by respiratory contact that can sweep through a general population very quickly.” Glick further affirms, “There is no scientist that would say that we think this is respiratory spread.”

The program highlights that Dr. Glick was in Sierra Leone recently. His ten days there were highly cautious and monitored. He was there helping to prepare our primary care clinic to operationalize in early 2015 (to address the inadequate primary care infrastructure in the Kono District, not to provide Ebola relief – that will be left to those with the appropriate expertise, and we support their efforts). While there, Dr. Glick had no known exposure, did not provide any patient care, never even visited an Ebola treatment center, and spent his time with a small group of Sierra Leonians, including Phebian, who were in good health and exhibited no Ebola symptoms. Therefore, as a matter of precaution, he is following CDC guidelines, monitoring his temperature twice daily for 21 days and reporting it to the Dept of Health, despite his low risk status.

“Even a doctor who was in an Ebola treatment center who is not symptomatic, cannot spread the disease,” says Glick. “What we know about this virus is that in the asymptomatic stages, even if someone has the virus inside of them, that they are not contagious, that if we did a blood test, it would not show positive for Ebola. In fact, even the case with Mr. Duncan [Texas, first US case], it wasn’t his family who was around him before he got sick or even initially when he got sick that got the disease – it was the nurses who were taking care of him when he was really sick.” This simple fact draws a really important distinction in where there is risk or not.

The host reiterates, “So if you don’t have symptoms, and you don’t in fact know that you have the sickness, you’re not going to be able to spread the disease?” “Exactly,” Glick confirms.

“I don’t have question in my mind that Ebola will just be episodic in this country, I don’t think its something that we need to fear at all, here. Because we are a global community, there will be these cases that pop up here and there, but it will never sweep through our communities; we have a good health care system here.”

“We need the world to come around West Africa in ways that it is reluctant to do, and we need to try to avoid the fear that we have in this county that is not substantiated.” Dr. Glick encourages focusing energy on channeling relief efforts to alleviating the suffering of those in West Africa.

The host closes the program by affirming, “The bottom line is, the average person out there in WNY and in our country shouldn’t be too concerned.”

Instead, let’s lift up the people of West Africa in our prayers, generously funnel resources there, trust the facts, and work toward putting a stop to the crisis. The more aid that is channeled to West Africa, the more quickly Ebola can be wiped out and the global threat contained.

To stay connected to our efforts and our ongoing work in Sierra Leone, subscribe to this blog. To support our global relief work monetarily, donate at our website.

Introducing Karlin...

Karlin is the newest member of our Global Health Outreach Team. He is a registered nurse who for the past year has lived in Sierra Leone working in Freetown in several capacities. His most recent role was working with the Connaught Government Hospital in capacity building activities within their Emergency Department. This work included helping to set up an isolation unit and training staff in proper isolation techniques. His journey to working with us at Jericho Road is nothing short of a God ordained miracle.

He found out about Jericho Road through a connection at his church in South Carolina. After some time and several conversations, he was able to join Dr. Glick and Phebian for two weeks in the Kono district. During that time, they were able to show him our medical clinic and introduce him to our medical mission project. Shortly thereafter, he was offered a position to join Jericho Road in Sierra Leone with the primary purpose of making our medical clinic operational. He graciously accepted this offer and he's currently working with us in Buffalo, NY. With his skill set, medical background, and in country connections he has been a perfect addition to our Global Health Outreach Team.

Our medical clinic building and mission house is still on track to be finished by January of 2015. Karlin is planning to join Phebian in country at that time. There is a lot of work to be done in making the medical clinic operational. Karlin is ready for this because of his missional heart to serve the people of Sierra Leone, to help improve the medical infrastructure, to strengthen the fragile health system, and to improve the quality of care for those in Kono. By doing this, he will be the hands and feet of Jesus in a country that has been devastated by war, poverty, injustice, and poor health. We are excited at what his presence in Sierra Leone will do for our mission there.

Please consider supporting him by clicking here and selecting Sierra Leone Operations Fund under purpose.  Thank you in advance.