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Sierra Leone

country · in 135 videos (2014–2026)

Country where the brothers have supported Partners In Health's maternal health work since 2019.

Videos by year: 2014: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2019: 17 · 2020: 12 · 2021: 10 · 2022: 17 · 2023: 19 · 2024: 16 · 2025: 19 · 2026: 16

Threads

Also named in the threads: Vlogbrothers pre-roll ads and the Vlogbrothers Creator Grants (2014) · John's visit to rural health care in Ethiopia with the Gates Foundation (2014) · John's viral meningitis and hospitalisation (2014) · John: Ebola will not spread widely in the US or Europe (2014) · John: the West African Ebola outbreak will eventually be contained, at a very high cost (2014) · Awesome Socks Club: monthly sock subscription (2016) · Hank asks viewers to sign up for DFTBA Pin Pals before its limited openings fill (2018) · DFTBA Pin Pals: DFTBA's pin subscription club (2018) · Life's Library book club: launch and first year (2018) · Nerdfighteria revenue (Pizzamas royalties, Life's Library proceeds) redirected to charity (2018) · John invites viewers to join Life's Library at lifeslibrarybookclub.com (2019) · Partners In Health maternal health project in Liberia funded by DFTBA profit (2019) · John asks viewers to come see the brothers' Minitour in Madison and Minneapolis (2019) · Hank and John's Minitour: live podcasts in Madison and Minneapolis for maternal health in Sierra Leone (2019) · John: the Maternal Center of Excellence will dramatically change the quality of care for women and children in its region (2020) · John (with Sarah): host regular livestreams on Vlogbrothers and The Art Assignment, starting the next day (2020) · John: the Maternal Center of Excellence should dramatically accelerate progress in care at Koidu (2020) · John: Partners In Health will break ground on the Maternal Center of Excellence in spring 2021 (2020) · John (with PIH Sierra Leone): celebrate the Maternal Center of Excellence groundbreaking with a livestream on April 29, 2021 (2021) · Pizzamas 2021 edition · John: the Maternal Center of Excellence is on track to open on schedule (2021) · Awesome Coffee Club: the brothers' coffee subscription for charity (2022) · Pizzamas 2022 edition · John and Hank ask viewers to sign up for the Awesome Socks Club for 2023 (2022) · John asks viewers to buy Sun Basin Soap, whose profit goes to charity (2023) · Good Store: the brothers' store and subscription box at good.store giving all profit to charity (2023) · Sun Basin Soap: the brothers' charity soap subscription made with Botanie (2023) · John: the Maternal Center of Excellence's first wards will open in 2024 (2023) · John asks viewers to pressure Johnson & Johnson to drop its secondary bedaquiline patent (2023) · John asks viewers to press Danaher and Cepheid to cut GeneXpert TB test cartridges to $5 (2023)

Often together

What comes up in the same parts of the videos; the number is how many parts.

maternal death (86) · Maternal Center of Excellence (65) · Partners In Health (85) · Koidu Government Hospital (33) · child mortality (38) · Awesome Socks Club (34) · tuberculosis (36) · Good Store (22) · Sun Basin Soap (12) · Awesome Coffee Club (14)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2014

  • 2014-03-04 · Understanding Ukraine: The Problems Today and Some Historical Context — John says that dream seems far away, but 60 years ago Japan was in ruins, 25 years ago Germany was divided, and 12 years ago Sierra Leone was in civil war; now it is the second-fastest-growing economy. — 00:06:35
  • 2014-08-12 · EBOLA! (...meningitis) — John: Ten days before falling ill with what turned out to be viral meningitis, John was in Ethiopia, on the same continent as Guinea and Sierra Leone, where Ebola is spreading. — 00:00:31
    • In Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, health workers must choose between abandoning their work and risking Ebola for themselves and their kids, because of inadequate infrastructure and supplies. — 00:03:02
  • 2014-10-21 · Ebola: What IS Terrifying — John: There have been about 10,000 reported Ebola cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, an undercount, and the infection rate is not levelling off, which is terrifying. — 00:00:39
    • Citing Bill Gates, John says the collapse of public health care in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea has probably caused more non-Ebola deaths than Ebola has. (hedged) — 00:02:00

2016

2018

  • 2018-01-23 · On Emergencies — John: After the outbreak the world made big health investments in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia; as the New Yorker article says, once Ebola seemed stabilized the money evaporated. — 00:00:32
    • When the outbreak began, Sierra Leone, a nation of over 7 million people, had fewer than 200 doctors. — 00:00:52
    • Over 5% of Sierra Leone's doctors died of Ebola in 2014. — 00:00:58
    • For context, John's home state of Indiana, with a slightly smaller population than Sierra Leone, has over 16,000 practicing physicians. — 00:01:01
    • John is totally unconvinced that these problems are not our problems or that Sierra Leone's health system should be fixed entirely within Sierra Leone. — 00:01:29
  • 2018-08-21 · SYSTEMS!!!! — John: About 11% of Sierra Leone's economy goes to health-care spending, a share similar to the UK, Australia or France. — 00:02:00
    • Because Sierra Leone is much poorer, 11% of its GDP equals $54 per person per year for health care. — 00:02:12
    • John says $54 per person per year is not enough to fund a robust health-care system. — 00:02:22
  • 2018-10-09 · How Big a Problem is Mental Illness? — John says in Sierra Leone communicable diseases are overwhelmingly the leading cause of lost life years, but mental illness causes more burden than almost any other non-communicable disease. — 00:01:56
    • John says shackling in Sierra Leone just ended thanks to a huge Ministry of Health effort and slightly improved funding, news to be celebrated. — 00:01:56
    • John says Sierra Leone still faces huge mental health challenges, with only two psychiatrists for seven million people, and elsewhere many are still chained without treatment. — 00:02:26
  • 2018-12-07 · BABIES! The 2018 Project for Awesome is here… — John says Partners In Health does extraordinary work providing health care to the poor from Sierra Leone to Haiti. — 00:02:38
  • …and 8 statements more in 2018 — all statements of 2018

2019

  • 2019-04-05 · TOO MANY MILKS — announcement: Hank says John is in Sierra Leone with Partners In Health, seeing how individuals and the whole community might help make life easier there, especially for pregnant people and babies. — 00:00:31
  • 2019-04-09 · The Only Psychiatric Hospital in Sierra Leone — announcement: John: In coming months and years John and Hank will focus on long-term support for Sierra Leone's health care system, by far the channel's biggest project: intimidating, but the need is immediate and critical. — 00:05:30
  • 2019-04-23 · untitled — announcement: John: Nerdfighteria's project with Partners In Health Sierra Leone will provide ongoing funding to improve the health care system there, because long-term problems need long-term solutions. — 00:02:55
  • 2019-07-19 · In Which Hank Consumes the Juice of Over 400 Gushers — announcement: Hank: Pricier tickets include meeting the brothers afterward, and all the tour's money will support the community's work improving maternal health in Sierra Leone. — 00:03:01
  • 2019-08-02 · The Cutest Octopus — announcement: Hank: To raise money for the community's work decreasing maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, DFTBA Pin Pals launches a Bizarre Beasts pin subscription club. — 00:03:05
  • 2019-08-09 · Decluttering the Somewhat Embarrassing Nightstand of a 39 Year-Old Best-Selling Author — ask: Hank: For viewers into enamel pins who want to support the community's work decreasing maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, the Pin Club is open just two more days at $12 a month with free worldwide shipping. — 00:01:48
  • 2019-10-01 · Why Are Poor Countries Poor? — announcement: John says the brothers will make a big announcement later this month (October 2019) about working with Partners In Health Sierra Leone, and first considers why Sierra Leone is so poor. — 00:00:00
  • 2019-10-15 · I'm Having a Lot of Feelings — announcement: John says the announcement of the brothers' big project with Partners In Health Sierra Leone is forthcoming: many moving parts, very exciting and very overwhelming. — 00:01:27
  • 2019-10-22 · Why We're Donating $6,500,000 — announcement: John announces that over the next five years the brothers' families are donating $6.5 million to Partners In Health Sierra Leone. — 00:00:01
  • 2019-10-25 · Unscripted and Unhinged — Hank says his money doesn't disappear in Sierra Leone: its value grows in children, nurses, parents and communities, just in ways he can't see or control. — 00:02:11
  • 2019-11-08 · Trolling Through John's YouTube History...GUESS WHAT I FOUND!? — announcement: Hank says all the profits from Pizzamas products are going to improve maternal health in Sierra Leone. — 00:03:40
  • 2019-11-26 · old fashioned parts video — announcement: John says this year's (2019) P4A fundraising is entirely separate from the brothers' project with Partners In Health Sierra Leone announced a couple of months ago. — 00:02:01
  • …and 44 statements more in 2019 — all statements of 2019

2020

  • 2020-01-07 · Endings · Beginnings — John says Partners In Health needs $20 million to break ground on the Maternal Center of Excellence, which will dramatically improve healthcare for women and children in Sierra Leone. — 00:00:48 · also in: Looking Back at My 2020 Goals
    • John says thousands of viewers have become monthly donors to the project at pih.org/hankandjohn; he is grateful, as are people in Sierra Leone, one of whom made him an artwork. — 00:01:02
  • 2020-01-17 · It's Like Shark Tank, but for Charity — announcement: Hank: The catch: if the business succeeds within three years, the $50,000 comes back to promote maternal health in Sierra Leone, and 10% of after-tax income goes to that effort every year. — 00:03:03
  • 2020-01-28 · Looking Away (Again) — John says most children who die in Sierra Leone die of conditions we know how to treat or prevent. — 00:01:51
    • John says he understood in the abstract that Sierra Leone's maternal and child mortality crises were emergencies but had not been treating them like emergencies. — 00:02:50
  • 2020-07-21 · Somebody Once Asked . . . — John explains that the brothers are helping Partners In Health and Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health in a multi-year project to strengthen the healthcare system, focused on maternal mortality. — 00:01:28
    • The pandemic challenges health systems everywhere: Koidu Government Hospital's emergency department closed for a time after health workers caught the virus and others had to self-isolate, leaving no replacements. — 00:01:28
    • The emergency department is running again; PIH has been deeply involved in contact tracing and screening across Sierra Leone, and cases are down 18% from their peak. — 00:01:56
  • 2020-11-17 · Our Biggest Project Yet: A One Year Update — announcement: John recalls that a year ago they announced a project supporting PIH and Sierra Leone's government in radically reducing maternal mortality, raising $25 million over five years to strengthen Kono's health system. — 00:00:00
    • One out of every 20 women in Sierra Leone can expect to die in pregnancy or childbirth. — 00:00:58
  • 2020-11-24 · personal risk · societal risk — John: During Sierra Leone's 2014 Ebola outbreak the health system collapsed, and mortality rose sharply: more mothers died in childbirth, more children of diarrheal illness. — 00:01:56
  • 2020-11-27 · Finally Launching this Project!!! — announcement: Hank says shipping is free everywhere with an address and 100% of the profit goes to charity, currently to decrease maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:02:05 · also in: Elon Was Right
  • …and 24 statements more in 2020 — all statements of 2020

2021

  • 2021-01-12 · My 2021 Vision Board — John: Under 'read books, not tweets', John says reading Annie Dillard, Terry Tempest Williams or even Paul Farmer's upsetting book on Sierra Leone and Ebola leaves him informed and engaged, without Twitter's panicky dopamine rush. — 00:02:45
  • 2021-01-19 · let's go on a parts adventure — ask: John: Acknowledging many gave to Sierra Leone or cannot donate, John asks those who can afford $500 or more to join the P4A matching fund via a Google form or email. — 00:01:27
  • 2021-04-09 · A Thought is Not an Idea — Hank: Thoughts are not ideas: Hank's sample thoughts (raising money for a maternal center in Sierra Leone, socks selling well at DFTBA.com, many good independent artists) are unconnected and point in no direction. — 00:00:58
    • The Awesome Socks Club has now donated over $200,000 to the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone. — 00:01:27
  • 2021-04-20 · Breaking Ground!!! — announcement: John: Next week (week of 26 April 2021) Partners In Health and the Sierra Leonean government will officially break ground on the Maternal Center of Excellence and the expansion of Koidu Government Hospital, a huge step against maternal mortality. — 00:00:00
    • In the region the MCOE will serve, one out of every 20 women can expect to die in childbirth. — 00:00:29
    • John recommends PIH Sierra Leone's annual report, which covers the infant care unit and a baby, Naphtal, whose parents named him after his doctor in thanks for his survival. — 00:00:29
    • The groundbreaking will be celebrated on April 29 at 6 p.m. Eastern with a livestream featuring friends from PIH Sierra Leone; John hopes viewers join. — 00:01:16
  • 2021-10-01 · A Lie I Heard this Week — Hank says infant deaths per thousand births are below six in most places watching the video, but 80 in Sierra Leone, down from 160 when he was born in 1980; devastating, and not news. — 00:02:05
    • Hank says that in news terms falling from 16% to 8% infant mortality is good news, but 8% infant mortality is still a bad situation. — 00:02:26
  • 2021-10-13 · The Web of Care — Hank: No individual must care about or do everything, from never getting COVID to cutting maternal mortality in Sierra Leone or cooking every meal: we do all of it in a web of care. — 00:02:36
  • 2021-11-05 · We Have Invented Something Marvelous — Hank says every dollar of the club's profit supports the community's work decreasing maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:01:56
  • …and 5 statements more in 2021 — all statements of 2021

2022

  • 2022-01-04 · After 15 Years on YouTube, THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING THING — announcement: John: Asked what else they needed, PIH Sierra Leone named teaching classrooms and a 100-bed dormitory, an outpatient department with maternal HIV support and family planning, a medicine warehouse, and support for the Kayima clinic. — 00:06:03
  • 2022-01-18 · The Miracle of the Leone Stars — John: Needing one win against Benin, the Leone Stars won a somewhat controversial penalty that Kei Kamara scored, and celebrations erupted across the country as Sierra Leone qualified. — 00:00:58
  • 2022-02-08 · How Much Money Vlogbrothers Makes from YouTube (...and where it goes) — announcement: John says half the money went to the brothers' Partners In Health project to reduce maternal mortality in Sierra Leone; the rest was split between a Complexly educational fund and a fund for emerging educational creators. — 00:00:58
  • 2022-02-22 · On the Death of My Hero — John: Told nothing could be done about one in 17 Sierra Leonean women dying in pregnancy or childbirth, Farmer said otherwise; so the community came to support PIH's maternal and child care center at Koidu. — 00:02:26
  • 2022-04-19 · How do you cross the Sad Gap? — Joia Mukherjee (quoted): Dr. Mukherjee said charities leaving when the crisis ended would leave Sierra Leone's health system more fragile, so PIH was going and staying, to build a stronger system for the next catastrophe. — 00:02:26
  • 2022-05-06 · Why I Didn't Quit YouTube (yet) — Hank says the Awesome Socks Club has donated over a million dollars to Partners In Health for the brothers' work in Sierra Leone. — 00:02:26
  • 2022-05-17 · Reasons Not to Care — John: System strengthening can radically reduce maternal mortality: as Sierra Leone's health system grows stronger, partly through the community's investments, maternal mortality there fell over 10% in five years. — 00:02:26
  • 2022-09-13 · A Million Things at Once — John says the community is on track to raise over $30 million over the first five years of this decade for a stronger health system in Kono District, Sierra Leone. — 00:02:04
  • 2022-09-26 · PIZZAMAS IS UPON US — ask: John says everything is available only during this year's (2022) Pizzamas at pizzamas.com, with all proceeds supporting stronger health care systems in Sierra Leone. — 00:00:58
  • 2022-10-05 · Asking an AI Image Generator for Pizza Johns — ask: Hank, showing a Pizzamas item that Orin calls the tiniest statue in the world, says the world needs more access to health care, as in Sierra Leone, where all Pizzamas proceeds go, and the item is available only for a couple more days. — 00:00:00
  • 2022-10-25 · Instantly Debateable — John: Kissy Psychiatric Hospital has just been accredited as a full teaching hospital, so for the first time in Sierra Leone's history physicians and nurses can train in psychiatry in-country. — 00:00:58
  • 2022-11-15 · 3 Years In: What Happened, Why, and What's Next — John says the community, working with Partners In Health, is now on pace to raise over $35 million in the first five years of the project to radically reduce maternal mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:00:00
  • …and 31 statements more in 2022 — all statements of 2022

2023

  • 2023-01-24 · Behind the Scenes of my TUMBLR MEME LORD ERA — announcement: John: Today the Awesome Coffee Club launches its decaf roast, Paradoxica, named like all its roasts after a Sierra Leonean butterfly; it now covers light, medium dark and decaf. — 00:02:00
  • 2023-03-14 · The Seduction of Despair — John says destruction is fast, loud and dramatic, reparative work slow and quiet; that's where his hope is, in big projects (a maternal hospital in Sierra Leone, US voting rights) and quiet human moments. — 00:03:10
  • 2023-05-02 · GOOD NEWS — John: When PIH began working with Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health eight years ago, Koidu's maternity ward had dirt floors and no patients, after impoverishment, civil war and the Ebola-era health-system collapse. — 00:00:00
  • 2023-07-11 · Barely Contained Rage: An Open Letter to Johnson & Johnson — John recalls meeting two young women in Sierra Leone a couple of months ago who were dying of TB; after a bedaquiline cocktail they recovered and are now cured, home and in school. — 00:02:55
  • 2023-08-01 · Three Mornings — John says the Awesome Coffee Club donates 100% of profit to charity; Awesome Coffee, Awesome Socks and Sun Basin Soap have donated over $5 million in three years to fight maternal and infant mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:05:20
  • 2023-08-15 · Henry — John: In 2019 John visited the Lakka TB hospital in Sierra Leone and met Henry, who shares his son's name and seemed his son's age; Henry showed him around, and John assumed he was a nurse's child. — 00:00:00
  • 2023-08-29 · Breaking News: CEO Demoted — John says the clubs donate 100% of their profit to charity and have so far raised over $5 million for better child and maternal health in Sierra Leone. — 00:00:00
  • 2023-09-22 · A Feeling I've Never Felt Before — Hank reminds viewers that all Pizzamas profit goes to decreasing maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:04:56
  • 2023-10-17 · My Next Book — John: Over the last five years the community has raised over $40 million to build the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone, which John says is coming along great. — 00:01:27 · also in: The world will change.
  • 2023-10-24 · A Tale of Two Cancers — John tells of Mondeh, a child in Sierra Leone's rural Kono district, whose parents noticed a lump on his neck at about six, when he also became much more lethargic. — 00:01:05
  • 2023-11-03 · We Need to talk about Sarapocial Relationships — Hank: By capable Hank means the community can act for itself and the world, from TB access to Crash Course, SciShow and the clubs funding maternal health in Sierra Leone; membership should feel valuable. — 00:03:57
  • 2023-12-01 · It's OK if you think less of me after this! — Hank says John gave him a motivation: promise to raise $25 million for a hospital in Sierra Leone without knowing how, which excites him in a way making money for himself did not. — 00:03:15
  • …and 26 statements more in 2023 — all statements of 2023

2024

  • 2024-03-12 · How We End TB — John says that work is hard, as seen in the fight against maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, but results are huge: maternal mortality there has halved since 2019. — 00:03:50
  • 2024-03-19 · Our $80,000,000 Bet — John says that on maternal mortality in Sierra Leone or the global TB crisis, he is astonished by what Nerdfighteria has done by orienting attention and resources in the same direction, and is grateful. — 00:04:23
  • 2024-06-18 · The Tea — John: Altogether they helped raise over $40 million for the project, and maternal mortality in Sierra Leone has already fallen by more than 50% since 2019, saving thousands of lives. — 00:01:27
    • John says long-term problems like the systemic impoverishment of Sierra Leone's health care system demand long-term solutions like ongoing funding for it. — 00:01:56
    • John doesn't want to undermine the Sierra Leone maternal work, but PIH calls comprehensive TB care the next big thing in global health equity. — 00:05:21
  • 2024-10-22 · My New Book: Everything Is Tuberculosis — John says in 2019 he visited a tuberculosis hospital in Sierra Leone, met a boy who shared his son's name, and came home obsessed with tuberculosis. — 00:00:33
  • 2024-10-30 · Sipping the Tea with Hank — John says all money Good Store makes goes either to stronger maternal and infant care in Sierra Leone or to better tuberculosis care in Lesotho. — 00:02:27
  • 2024-11-19 · Let's Talk about Money — John: In 2019 the brothers committed to raising $25 million to help build a maternal and infant care center in the Kono District of Sierra Leone. — 00:00:26
  • 2024-11-26 · Good News — John: In 2017 Sierra Leone's maternal mortality rate was over 1,100 per 100,000 births, and with multiple pregnancies in a lifetime, one in 17 women there died in pregnancy or childbirth. — 00:02:06
    • Sierra Leone's maternal death rate is now 443 per 100,000 births. — 00:02:22
    • Sierra Leone's maternal death rate is still far too high, about 100 times too high, but down about 60% in seven years. — 00:02:26
    • About 2,000 more mothers survive childbirth every year in Sierra Leone than in 2019, when the brothers' project with Partners In Health began. — 00:03:16
  • …and 20 statements more in 2024 — all statements of 2024

2025

  • 2025-02-11 · What's at Stake — John says that although the US government can claim medicines are still flowing, he hears again and again from people on the ground, from Tanzania to Sierra Leone, who cannot get their TB medication. — 00:03:24
  • 2025-03-11 · Hank Green's Brother — John says Hank's ideas help coral reefs in Maui, hospitals in Sierra Leone and TB clinics in Lesotho, and Hank's desire to make a difference inspires him, especially now. — 00:03:18
  • 2025-05-13 · I Have the BEST News — John says, thanks to the government and groups like PIH, Sierra Leone's lifetime maternal death risk fell from 1 in 17 to around 1 in 74, an over 60% reduction, though still too high. — 00:01:27
  • 2025-05-16 · No One Knows When They Don't Die — Hank says the community's work in Sierra Leone means fewer women are already dying in childbirth, a very quiet victory. — 00:02:26
  • 2025-06-10 · 90,000,000 Lives for $20 — John says a friend in Sierra Leone with HIV had his medication rationed by funding cuts; John promised he and Sarah would cover private medication, and the friend asked: what about everyone else? — 00:05:50
  • 2025-06-13 · Moving to Hope from Hopelessness (3 ways) — announcement: Hank: After a call with Partners In Health, Hank announces they have raised the $50 million it takes to build the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone and get it running. — 00:06:49
  • 2025-10-01 · Real Reasons for Hope — John says that in Sierra Leone over the same period maternal mortality has dropped by over 60%. — 00:03:24
  • 2025-10-31 · We Did It… — Hank recalls that shortly after John's first video from Sierra Leone six years ago, the brothers pledged to raise $25 million for a hospital without knowing how, and exceeded the goal. — 00:05:47
  • 2025-11-11 · John's Annual Psychophysical Decline — John reminds himself that, as Hank noted last week (week of 3 November 2025), the ribbon has been cut on the completed Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone. — 00:00:58
  • 2025-11-13 · Fighting TB in Kids: A Discussion with Doctors without Borders — Mariama: Dr. Mariama says Sierra Leone reported over 22,000 TB cases in 2024; 15% should be children but only 9% were, so about 3,000 children with TB are missed every year. — 00:27:45
  • 2025-11-25 · Poverty Is Expensive — John says that at the last moment Isatu was denied a visa to Denmark, with no clear reason given, and had to fly back to Sierra Leone. — 00:01:56
  • 2025-12-09 · Hank Green, from A to Z — John says Hank helped fund the Maternal Center of Excellence at Koidu's government hospital, which triples the region's maternal beds and gives Sierra Leone its first ever NICU. — 00:02:26
  • …and 32 statements more in 2025 — all statements of 2025

2026

  • 2026-02-14 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! — announcement: John announces that a couple of hours earlier the Maternal Center of Excellence at Koidu Government Hospital in Kono District, Sierra Leone, delivered its first baby. — 00:04:18
  • 2026-02-15 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 5! — announcement: John says people can now get safe emergency C-sections at the Maternal Center of Excellence, which has a functioning NICU for the first time in the history of Sierra Leone, a game-changing difference in maternal and infant health care in the Kono region and beyond. — 04:08:59
    • John says that since Sierra Leone's government took on maternal health as a priority, the share of women dying in pregnancy or childbirth has fallen from one in 17 or one in 20 to closer to one in 80. — 04:10:30
  • 2026-02-20 · What We Actually Did. — announcement: Hank announces that this weekend, during P4A, which was instrumental in building the Paul E. Farmer Maternal Center of Excellence at Koidu Government Hospital, the first baby was born in Sierra Leone's first NICU. — 00:03:49
  • 2026-02-24 · Risk Is a Privilege — announcement: John says the Paul Farmer Maternal Center of Excellence finally opened at Koidu Government Hospital, radically transforming infant and maternal care in eastern Sierra Leone. — 00:00:00
  • 2026-04-14 · Babies. Babies. Babies. — John is reminded that long-term problems demand long-term solutions: after seven years with Partners In Health and Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health, they are seeing the transformation. — 00:03:24
  • 2026-04-28 · What I Can't Show You — John lists the MCOE's piped oxygen, a laundry still under construction, 120 maternal beds and the nation's first NICU, and says it has transformed the care possible in Kono and Sierra Leone. — 00:02:55
    • John calls the MCOE a tremendous accomplishment and is most impressed that no corners were cut in building it: it is not an excellent center for Kono, Sierra Leone or an impoverished country, but an excellent maternal and infant care center, full stop. — 00:03:53
  • 2026-05-01 · Despair is Not Wisdom — Hank says that if we thought despair was wisdom, a hospital in Sierra Leone would not exist and babies would be dead; instead they can be tickled. — 00:05:11
  • 2026-08-25 · The Great Thing about Infectious Disease — announcement: John: The 2,000th baby has been born at the Nerdfighteria-supported the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone since it opened in February; all will have access to vaccination at Koidu Government Hospital or local clinics. — 00:05:21
  • 2026-10-01 · Are We Still YouTubers? — Hank says his artwork is not video but the channel, the brotherhood, the whole thing: from people unsure which brother is which to people making Hollywood, Ending cakes, fonts and hospitals in Sierra Leone. — 00:06:57
  • 2026-10-27 · Should I Salinger… — John: Looking at the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone, John is sure it is worth whatever the minor cost of a public life is. — 00:03:02
  • …and 26 statements more in 2026 — all statements of 2026

Also named in: Project for Awesome 2026 Kickoff!