Maternal Center of Excellence: the brothers' Partners In Health project in Sierra Leone (2019)

project history · status: completed · last event: milestone (2026-08-25) · last mentioned: 2026-09-01

Began with

John asks viewers to sign up for the new newsletter about the Sierra Leone project (2019) — By April 2019 the same Partners In Health Sierra Leone project already has its own newsletter, months before the October 2019 announcement

Told alongside: John asks viewers to buy Sun Basin Soap, whose profit goes to charity (2023) · Partners In Health maternal health project in Liberia funded by DFTBA profit (2019) · Good Store: the brothers' store and subscription box at good.store giving all profit to charity (2023) · John (with Hank): donate one penny per P4A 2010 comment, up to one million comments, to Save the Children and Partners in Health (2010)

About: Partners In Health, Sierra Leone, Maternal Center of Excellence, Koidu Government Hospital

date	event	what	video
2019-04-05	proposed	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.	TOO MANY MILKS 00:00:31
2019-10-15	announced	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.	I'm Having a Lot of Feelings 00:01:27
2019-10-22	launched	John announces that over the next five years the brothers' families are donating $6.5 million to Partners In Health Sierra Leone.	Why We're Donating $6,500,000 00:00:01
2020-01-07	milestone	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.	Endings · Beginnings 00:00:48
2020-01-28	milestone	John says total commitments are now close to $13 million, which is amazing, but there is still a ways to go.	Looking Away (Again) 00:05:16
2020-07-21	milestone	The community's response has been incredible: donations have kept going up every month despite everything; John thanks donors and points to pih.org/hankandjohn.	Somebody Once Asked . . . 00:02:52
2020-10-07 (said on 2020-10-06, implied)	milestone	John says they are in one of their most ambitious projects yet: supporting PIH and Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health to staff, supply and build a maternal care center, a NICU and a new pediatric ward at Koidu Government Hospital.	The Golden Age of Vlogbrothers 00:02:26
2020-11-17	milestone	A year after announcing the project, John reports that altogether over $18.5 million has been raised, 93% of what is needed to break ground. → refers to Why We're Donating $6,500,000	Our Biggest Project Yet: A One Year Update 00:05:13
2020-12-29	milestone	Despite all the unforeseen events of the year, the goal of raising the money for the Maternal Center of Excellence was reached.	Looking Back at My 2020 Goals 00:02:50
2021-02-12	looked back	When John asked him a few years ago to give a significant share of his current money and promise much of his future earnings to people seeking the best solutions, Hank swallowed hard and said yes.	Doing Better 00:02:35
2021-04-20	milestone	John assumed the pandemic would delay the MCOE for months or years, but donations grew every month and, with Partners In Health, over $20 million has been raised.	Breaking Ground!!! 00:00:29
2021-07-23	milestone	The description says the Awesome Socks Club is open for two weeks, sign-ups get their first pair in August, and 100% of profits go to Partners in Health to build the Maternal Center of Excellence.	The Last 25 Questions I Asked Google video description
2021-10-01	looked back	Hank says that because John did that work, they have raised tens of millions of dollars for Partners In Health, and donors, Awesome Socks Club members, Pizzamas buyers and community members were all part of it.	A Lie I Heard this Week 00:02:53
2021-12-21	milestone	John reports big reductions in child and maternal mortality at Koidu Government Hospital over the last year, and far more people using the health system because they feel they can get care.	NOW I AM THE SCIENCE ONE… 00:02:26
2022-01-04	milestone	Nerdfighteria is large but not that large, and reaching such an ambitious target faster than even the rosiest projections shows what such communities can accomplish.	After 15 Years on YouTube, THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING THING 00:01:27
2022-01-04	rule change	They hope to raise another $4 million in that time, taking the project from $25 million to $31 million to support the Kayima clinic and expand the MCOE; some will come from Pizzamas. (hedged)	After 15 Years on YouTube, THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING THING 00:08:00
2022-02-22	looked back	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.	On the Death of My Hero 00:02:26
2022-04-19	looked back	Dr. Mukherjee asked them to stay too, and John says that request changed his life.	How do you cross the Sad Gap? 00:02:26
2022-05-17	milestone	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.	Reasons Not to Care 00:02:26
2022-09-13	milestone	Thanks to increased support, the Kayima clinic is being renovated and is hiring and training staff to become a safe place to deliver babies and refer complicated cases to the hospital.	A Million Things at Once 00:03:03
2022-11-15	milestone	John reports that despite supply-chain challenges the Maternal Center of Excellence has begun construction, though it is a long way from finished.	3 Years In: What Happened, Why, and What's Next 00:00:58
2023-05-02	milestone	Helped by the nearly $40 million Nerdfighteria and PIH raised over three and a half years, the MCOE will be the world-class center Kono's mothers and children deserve.	GOOD NEWS 00:01:27
2023-08-01	milestone	John says the 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.	Three Mornings 00:05:20
2023-08-22	milestone	John shows Hank a picture of the Maternal Center of Excellence, a massive extension to Sierra Leone's Koidu Government Hospital funded primarily by Nerdfighteria.	The Panera Phenomenon 00:00:20
2023-12-01	looked back	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.	It's OK if you think less of me after this! 00:03:15
2024-01-16 (happened 2019)	looked back	In 2019 the community began supporting Partners In Health's efforts to radically reduce maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone's Kono District. · also in: The Tea	The Bank of Nerdfighteria 00:00:25
2024-02-16	looked back	Hank recalls that John convinced him to help raise $25 million to build the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone with Partners In Health, which was scary and motivating.	How Much Does it Cost to be a Nerdfighter 00:00:29
2024-02-16	milestone	For the first time in a long time, P4A money will not go to the Maternal Center of Excellence, now pretty well supported, but to the global fight against tuberculosis.	How Much Does it Cost to be a Nerdfighter 00:05:05
2024-03-12	milestone	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.	How We End TB 00:03:50
2024-03-19	looked back	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.	Our $80,000,000 Bet 00:04:23
2024-06-18	milestone	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.	The Tea 00:01:27
2024-11-19 (happened 2019)	looked back	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.	Let's Talk about Money 00:00:26
2024-11-26	milestone	In Kono, the district where Partners In Health began working in 2019, maternal mortality has fallen further: Koidu Government Hospital has seen a reduction close to 80% since 2019.	Good News 00:02:40
2025-05-13 (happened 2019-10-22)	looked back	John recalls that in a 2019 video he announced his family's $6.5 million donation to build and maintain a maternal and infant care center at Koidu Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. → refers to Why We're Donating $6,500,000	I Have the BEST News 00:00:00
2025-05-13	milestone	John says the combined efforts raised the $20 million needed and then some, and maternal mortality in Sierra Leone has fallen from 1 in 17 to about 1 in 74.	I Have the BEST News 00:01:27
2025-05-16	looked back	Hank says the community's work in Sierra Leone means fewer women are already dying in childbirth, a very quiet victory.	No One Knows When They Don't Die 00:02:26
2025-06-13	milestone	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.	Moving to Hope from Hopelessness (3 ways) 00:06:49
2025-09-30	looked back	Hank says the community realized early that the internet responds well to sudden disasters but not to ongoing ones, such as very high maternal mortality in parts of Sierra Leone.	WHO ARE WE AND WHAT ARE WE DOING 00:02:55
2025-10-01	milestone	John says maternal mortality at the hospital will decline further with the opening next month (November 2025) of the Maternal Center of Excellence there.	Real Reasons for Hope 00:03:53
2025-10-31 (happened 2019)	looked back	Hank recalls John's first video from Sierra Leone six years ago (2019), after which the brothers pledged $25 million for a hospital without knowing how, and exceeded the goal.	We Did It… 00:05:47
2025-10-31	milestone	Hank announces that the ribbon has just been cut at the Maternal Center of Excellence at Koidu Government Hospital, thanking the community, Partners In Health and Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health.	We Did It… 00:06:16
2025-11-11 (happened 2025-10)	looked back	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. → refers to We Did It…	John's Annual Psychophysical Decline 00:00:58
2025-12-09	looked back	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.	Hank Green, from A to Z 00:02:26
2026-02-14 (happened 2019)	looked back	In 2019 Partners In Health told John that $25 million was needed even to break ground on the maternal hospital in Sierra Leone, and he almost had a panic attack.	Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! 00:03:54
2026-02-14	milestone	The Maternal Center of Excellence at Koidu Government Hospital in Kono District, Sierra Leone, delivers its first baby on 14 February 2026.	Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! 00:04:18
2026-02-15	milestone	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.	Project for Awesome 2026 part 5! 04:08:59
2026-02-20	looked back	Hank recalls that a few years later John told him of a big idea: responding not to a sudden disaster but to a long-term one that was just the way things had been.	What We Actually Did. 00:00:29
2026-02-20	milestone	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.	What We Actually Did. 00:03:49
2026-02-24	outcome	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.	Risk Is a Privilege 00:00:00
2026-02-24	looked back	John says that as a community they made that bet, and so far it has worked.	Risk Is a Privilege 00:03:53
2026-03-06	looked back	Hank reminds viewers that the Maternal Center of Excellence has opened and was funded in part by Good.Store.	How Do You Create When You Don't Feel Safe 00:06:18
2026-04-14	milestone	John announces the Maternal Center of Excellence at Koidu Government Hospital has passed its first major milestone: its 500th baby delivered, in just a few months.	Babies. Babies. Babies. 00:00:00
2026-04-14 (happened 2019)	looked back	John recalls saying in 2019 that a woman needing a C-section usually found no ambulance and faced a long motorbike ride.	Babies. Babies. Babies. 00:01:27
2026-04-14	outcome	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.	Babies. Babies. Babies. 00:03:24
2026-04-28	looked back	John says 500 babies were born at the MCOE in its first six weeks of operation, including over 200 C-sections, many of them emergencies that might otherwise have meant maternal and child death.	What I Can't Show You 00:05:37
2026-05-05	looked back	John says most of those, Hank and Katherine included, who raised over $30 million for the MCOE and other efforts against maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone have never been there.	Noted Brother Hank Green 00:03:24
2026-08-25	milestone	The 2,000th baby has been born at the Nerdfighteria-supported MCOE since it opened in February; all will have access to vaccination at Koidu Government Hospital or local clinics.	The Great Thing about Infectious Disease 00:05:21
2026-09-01	looked back	John says Sun Basin Soap has donated millions of dollars to support the Maternal Center of Excellence at Koidu Government Hospital in Sierra Leone.	You Can't Go Home Again, but I Tried 00:03:15

Dates are upload dates, which set the order. Where the speaker gives a different recording date in the video, it is added as "said on YYYY-MM-DD, implied" (derived from the date said in the video).

What is said about it

56 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).

2019-04-05 · TOO MANY MILKS — Hank says John had poor internet and little free time for a video, and Hank looks forward to hearing what happened in Sierra Leone. — 00:00:58
2020-01-07 · Endings · Beginnings — 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
2020-01-07 · Endings · Beginnings — John says they still need to raise a few million dollars, which he realizes is a lot of money. — 00:01:13
2020-01-07 · Endings · Beginnings — announcement: John's most important 2020 goal is to finish raising the money, though maybe 2020 isn't realistic for it. (hedged) — 00:01:17
2020-01-07 · Endings · Beginnings — ask: John asks people who can make a big donation to Partners In Health to email him at sparksflyup@gmail.com or donate directly to the matching fund. — 00:01:21
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
2020-07-21 · Somebody Once Asked . . . — John: 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
2020-07-21 · Somebody Once Asked . . . — John: 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
2020-07-21 · Somebody Once Asked . . . — announcement: John: Later this month (July 2020) a special baby care unit opens at Koidu Government Hospital, which John calls a huge milestone for infant care. — 00:01:56
2020-11-17 · Our Biggest Project Yet: A One Year Update — John reports that Isata Dumbuya, the nurse leading Koidu Government Hospital's maternal and child health teams, told him the next big step for the community is the Maternal Center of Excellence. — 00:02:26
2020-11-17 · Our Biggest Project Yet: A One Year Update — John: The MCOE, like the whole hospital, will be owned by Sierra Leoneans through their government, staffed almost entirely by Sierra Leonean health workers and largely funded by the government. — 00:06:40
2021-12-21 · NOW I AM THE SCIENCE ONE… — recommendation: John recommends reading Partners In Health Sierra Leone's new annual report, or watching a video on improved maternal and child care at Koidu Government Hospital and what the Maternal Center of Excellence will mean. — 00:02:26
2022-01-04 · After 15 Years on YouTube, THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING THING — John: Partners In Health needed $25 million to build, supply and staff a maternal care center and NICU at Koidu Government Hospital, the only hospital serving Kono's 500,000 people. — 00:00:29
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
2023-05-02 · GOOD NEWS — John: Greeting Hank from the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone, John shows his crying, sweaty face as it sinks in how many lives the community is helping. — 00:00:00
2023-05-02 · GOOD NEWS — John: The Maternal Center of Excellence is a 48,000-square-foot maternal and infant care center being built in Sierra Leone. — 00:00:00
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
2023-05-02 · GOOD NEWS — John: Koidu Government Hospital's maternity ward is now overflowing with new mothers receiving excellent care, with a working operating room, blood bank and medical residents in training. — 00:00:29
2024-06-18 · The Tea — John says PIH needed to raise over $25 million before breaking ground, and building and running the hospital for a few years costs around $50 million. — 00:00:29
2024-11-19 · Let's Talk about Money — John: Building a hospital is not simple, and the brothers knew they would eventually need far more than $25 million for its ongoing costs, such as hiring community health workers to find at-risk pregnancies. — 00:00:40
2024-11-19 · Let's Talk about Money — John: To do right by the project in a long-term, open-ended way, thousands of people donate every month at pih.org/hankandjohn and dozens more fund a monthly match; John calls this the financial backbone of the maternal and infant care project. — 00:01:00
2024-11-26 · Good News — John: Since 2019 the community has made a long-term, open-ended commitment to pay attention to and raise funds for Sierra Leone's maternal and child health care system. — 00:01:24
2024-11-26 · Good News — John: 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
2024-11-26 · Good News — John: At the Sierra Leonean government's invitation, Partners In Health's model is being recreated in five districts, with hopes of eventually covering all 16 districts. — 00:03:40
2025-05-13 · I Have the BEST News — John says the $6.5 million was far from enough to build the Maternal Center of Excellence in Kono district: $20 million was needed just to break ground. — 00:00:29
2025-05-13 · I Have the BEST News — John says the reduction is not simple: serving babies and new moms needs a stronger whole health system, with ambulances, primary care clinics, community health workers and the Maternal Center of Excellence. — 00:02:00
2025-05-13 · I Have the BEST News — John says system strengthening has run through the last six years: more nursing students and residents at KGH as it became a teaching hospital, and more community health workers. — 00:02:30
2025-05-13 · I Have the BEST News — John describes the Maternal Center of Excellence as the capstone: 120 hospital beds, operating rooms for emergency C-sections, a huge blood bank and a NICU. — 00:02:30
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
2025-10-01 · Real Reasons for Hope — John: A decade ago Koidu Government Hospital in Kono had no 24-hour electricity, running water, blood bank or working x-ray machine, few medicines, little or no paid staff, and so very few patients. — 00:03:24
2025-10-01 · Real Reasons for Hope — John says the hospital now has all of that and much more, and as a result maternal mortality there has declined precipitously. — 00:03:53
2025-10-01 · Real Reasons for Hope — John says this is primarily the result of the Sierra Leonean government investing in health and health workers, but private philanthropy, including all viewers, played an important role. — 00:03:53
2025-10-01 · Real Reasons for Hope — John tells viewers who bought a Pizzamas shirt, donated monthly to Partners In Health or encouraged others to care about maternal mortality that they played a role in this story. — 00:03:53
2025-10-31 · We Did It… — Hank says the MCOE expands the maternity ward and special care baby unit from 48 to 120 beds, including the nation's first neonatal ICU, with reliable electricity, piped oxygen and surgical suites. — 00:07:14
2025-11-11 · John's Annual Psychophysical Decline — John says the MCOE brings Sierra Leone its first NICU, over a hundred new maternal beds, safe operating suites for emergency C-sections and a blood bank, all owned by Sierra Leoneans through their government. — 00:01:37
2026-02-14 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! — John says that in the end Nerdfighteria raised $32 million of the $50 million needed to get the Maternal Center of Excellence off the ground. — 00:04:18
2026-02-14 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! — John says the Maternal Center of Excellence offers safe emergency C-sections, potentially for 5,000 births a year, and has the first neonatal intensive care unit in Sierra Leone's history. (hedged) — 00:05:41
2026-02-14 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! — John calls the first birth at the Maternal Center of Excellence a testament to what people can do when they work together and take a long-term focus on a long-term problem. — 00:05:41
2026-02-14 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! — John: Thanking donors, John says Nerdfighteria is not the hero of the Maternal Center of Excellence: the heroes are the Ministry of Health staff and the builders, mostly women, many of whom will give birth there. — 00:06:55
2026-02-14 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! — announcement: John says the Maternal Center of Excellence will also be a teaching hospital training the next generation of Sierra Leonean physicians. — 00:07:36
2026-02-14 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! — John finds it metaphorically resonant that the first birth came during the Project for Awesome, since the hospital would not exist without the P4A and the community pushing the brothers toward charity. — 00:07:36
2026-02-15 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 5! — Hank recalls that when John first emailed him about the Maternal Center of Excellence project, John said people are good at responding to events that feel like disasters, but not to disasters that don't feel like events. — 04:08:59
2026-02-15 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 5! — Hank says the problems that are just the way things are right now are real and the biggest, and need not be accepted: attention can be sustained on one thing for a long time, as with the Maternal Center of Excellence, which took six years of fundraising. — 04:09:34
2026-02-15 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 5! — John says the Maternal Center of Excellence also took six years of work with Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health and of training health workers, midwives, nurses and traditional birth attendants; many lives were saved along the way, and it will now be a teaching hospital. — 04:10:00
2026-02-15 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 5! — John says the work in Sierra Leone is a blueprint for the rest of the world: if better maternal care is possible in the epicenter of the maternal death crisis, it is possible anywhere. — 04:10:59
2026-02-20 · What We Actually Did. — Hank says 34 minutes after the center opened a woman arrived with dangerously spiking blood pressure, risking stroke, seizures and organ damage. — 00:03:49
2026-02-20 · What We Actually Did. — Hank lists other first-day patients: a mother with chest pains who drove five hours, one past her due date who had the second C-section, and one rushed from a nearby clinic. — 00:04:18
2026-02-20 · What We Actually Did. — Hank says by the end of the first day the center had its first ambulance referral and first vaginal birth, 27 mothers admitted and 13 babies born. — 00:04:47
2026-02-24 · Risk Is a Privilege — John says the MCOE contains Sierra Leone's first NICU. — 00:00:00
2026-02-24 · Risk Is a Privilege — John says the MCOE was a different risk: their own money was the smallest part; they risked the money of thousands of people who trusted them. — 00:02:26
2026-02-24 · Risk Is a Privilege — John says the man meant the only upside was distant people's lives improving while failure would make him look a fool, and on that level the MCOE did have an unfavorable risk profile. — 00:03:53
2026-02-24 · Risk Is a Privilege — John says the bet might still go sideways: this is not the end of the MCOE's story but the very beginning. (hedged) — 00:04:22
2026-04-14 · Babies. Babies. Babies. — John tells of Sia Jamisa, 33, a pregnant mother of three two hours from Koidu, who went to her local clinic to give birth but developed complications needing an emergency C-section. — 00:00:58
2026-04-14 · Babies. Babies. Babies. — John says the MCOE holds Sierra Leone's first NICU, already a critical site of care for premature infants: over 130 babies have received care there. — 00:02:55
2026-04-14 · Babies. Babies. Babies. — John says the single biggest donor to the Maternal Center of Excellence has been Good Store. — 00:03:24
2026-04-28 · What I Can't Show You — John: In the MCOE's prenatal ward John met Rebecca, who, asked how many children she had, said four children, one living. — 00:04:14