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GOOD NEWS

2023-05-02 · documentary visit · John · 7:28 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development · mode: Documentary visit · tags: fundraising ask, on location, heavy topic, self promotion

On his first visit to Kono since Covid, John shows Hank the Maternal Center of Excellence under construction (built largely by newly trained women workers), reports that maternal and child mortality have fallen and that Koidu's special care baby unit now saves most of its babies, and asks for the just over $10 million still needed, calling it what humans can do together.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting from the MCOE site; Koidu's maternity ward eight years ago and now; Kono's maternal mortality, progress and remaining need; nearly $40 million raised

  • ★★ 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 · Sierra Leone, Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ The Maternal Center of Excellence is a 48,000-square-foot maternal and infant care center being built in Sierra Leone. — 00:00:00 · Maternal Center of Excellence, Sierra Leone
  • ★★★ 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 · Partners In Health, Koidu Government Hospital, Sierra Leone
  • ★★★ 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 · Koidu Government Hospital
  • ★★★ Kono was the epicenter of the world's maternal mortality crisis, with 1 in 17 women dying in childbirth or pregnancy. — 00:00:58 · maternal death
  • ★★★ In Kono both maternal and child mortality have since declined dramatically. — 00:00:58 · maternal death, child mortality
  • ★★★ Kono's health system remains inadequate: only 41 maternal beds for over 500,000 people, an overfull ward, and mothers and children dying daily for want of C-sections, ambulances and hemorrhage drugs. — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ John says these deaths are simply not acceptable, and also that we don't have to accept them. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ 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. — 00:01:27 · Nerdfighteria, Partners In Health, Maternal Center of Excellence

00:01:56 — MCOE construction progress, Isata Dumbuya and John Chu, planned NICUs, C-section capacity and teaching hospital

  • ★★★ John says the MCOE's scale can't be shown on camera, but footers are being poured, structures welded, and plumbing and wiring installed. — 00:01:56 · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ John says the MCOE's first wards will hopefully open next year (2024). (hedged) — 00:01:56 · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ Isata Dumbuya, the nurse midwife leading maternal health at the hospital, works closely with Build Health International engineer John Chew and his team on the building. — 00:01:56 · Koidu Government Hospital
  • ★★★ The MCOE will have two NICUs, for babies born inside and outside the hospital, and theaters and supplies for up to 10 emergency C-sections a day. — 00:02:26 · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ The MCOE will also be a teaching hospital where a new generation of midwives, nurses and doctors will train. — 00:02:26 · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★ John visited the site of the future dormitories and staff housing and met boys engaged in the cross-cultural tradition of watching big machines. (playful) — 00:02:26

00:02:55 — Construction workers trained on site, 65% women: Hawa, Marie and Success

  • ★★ As John Chew explained, almost all the construction workers were trained in new skills, partly through classes and partly through educational YouTube videos. — 00:02:55 · YouTube
  • ★★★ 65% of the construction workers on the MCOE site are women. — 00:02:55 · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ Hawa sold corn on the street in Koidu before this job; she now reads blueprints expertly and trains new workers, and told John her life and self-image have changed profoundly. — 00:03:24
  • ★★ Marie has learned a highly skilled trade, and Success, who worked as a mason on the site and is now a steel binder, says so many women work there because they know they will one day give birth in this hospital and their children will come there. — 00:03:24

00:04:23 — Improvements before the building: training, community health workers, and the thriving special care baby unit; thanks to donors

  • ★★★ Without waiting for the building, more nurses and doctors are training at existing facilities and more community health workers are being hired to find high-risk pregnancies by house call. — 00:04:23
  • ★★★ A special care baby unit at Koidu's hospital has already dramatically reduced child mortality. — 00:04:23 · Koidu Government Hospital, child mortality
  • ★★ The unit is so full that the team sometimes has to make unspeakably difficult decisions about whom to admit, but its babies receive world-class care. — 00:04:52
  • ★★★ Many Sierra Leonean hospitals have special care baby units but few function: staff, training, supplies and maintenance matter, and Koidu's unit thrives because its team has that support. — 00:05:21 · Sierra Leone
  • ★★★ John tells the thousands of monthly donors, the one-time givers and those who shared the project that this is the change they are making. — 00:05:21 · Nerdfighteria

00:05:50 — Just over $10 million still needed; monthly, one-time and large-gift asks; attention matters

  • ★★ Two years ago the parents of almost all the babies in the unit would have gone home heartbroken. — 00:05:50
  • ★★ John says the dignified, high-quality health care everyone deserves is coming to Kono, and with it generational change. — 00:05:50
  • ★★★ To support the MCOE and strengthen Kono's health system over the next few years, the project still needs to raise just over $10 million (a 'paltry sum', he jokes). — 00:05:50 · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★★ John asks viewers who can to join the monthly donors or make a one-time gift at pih.org/hankandjohn. — 00:06:19 · Partners In Health
  • ★★ John asks those considering a large gift (past gifts ranged from $2,000 to $500,000) to give via the special link or email him with questions. — 00:06:19
  • ★★★ John says viewers who can't donate help with their attention: the project taught him that collectively we are much more likely to solve the problems we pay attention to. — 00:06:19

00:06:49 — The good news room: Ophelia Dahl's question and the nurse's answer; what humans can do together

  • ★★★ In the special care baby unit, PIH co-founder Ophelia Dahl asked whether a frail baby on CPAP would live; the nurse answered that all these babies will live: this is the good news room. — 00:06:49 · Partners In Health

    “This is the good news room.”

  • ★★ John is proud that Koidu Government Hospital now has a good news room, and says the work of Marie, Hawa, Success and others on the MCOE means much more good news to come. — 00:06:49 · Koidu Government Hospital

  • ★★★ John closes: look at what humans can do when we come together. — 00:06:49

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says John visits Sierra Leone's Kono District for the first time since Covid and is astonished by the progress, the hope, and how far is still to go. — video description · Sierra Leone
  • ★★ Among more ways to help, the description asks viewers to join the Awesome Coffee Club or get Sun Basin soap, and to spread the word. — video description · Awesome Coffee Club, Sun Basin Soap
  • ★★ The description thanks everyone working on the MCOE and everyone who donated, joined the sock club, bought soap or spread word of the maternal mortality crisis. — video description · Awesome Socks Club, Sun Basin Soap
  • ★★ In a comment John says maintaining the hospital will be a long-term challenge, which is why they are building ongoing revenue like the Awesome Socks Club for open-ended MCOE support. — creator comment · Awesome Socks Club, Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ In a comment John says corruption is a challenge everywhere, so building only where there is none would mean no hospitals; PIH's transparent partnerships are why they trust it. — creator comment · Partners In Health
  • ★ In a comment John says sexual health and reproductive planning are a major MCOE focus, with units offering family planning to adolescents and adults. — creator comment · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ In a comment John says help has to begin with cultural humility, listening to what Sierra Leoneans say they need, plus PIH's long-term focus; no charity is perfect, but he believes in PIH's model. — creator comment · Sierra Leone, Partners In Health

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Koidu Government Hospital · Kono District · Maternal Center of Excellence · maternal death · Sierra Leone

Also: People: Hawa · Isata Dumbuya · John Chew · Marie (person, mentioned from 2023) · Ophelia Dahl · Success

Organizations: Build Health International · Ministry of Health and Sanitation (Sierra Leone) · Partners In Health · YouTube

Concepts: Caesarean section · child mortality · community health worker · Continuous positive airway pressure · neonatal intensive care unit

Places: Koidu

Events: Sierra Leone Civil War · Western African Ebola virus epidemic

Products: Sharpie

Only in the description or credits: Awesome Coffee Club · Awesome Socks Club · political corruption · Sun Basin Soap

Also centred on Kono District: Why Are Poor Countries Poor? · After 15 Years on YouTube, THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING THING

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