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Primary Submission Category: Place/Communities
Mothers of Sierra Leone: Building Health Through Community
Authors: Michael Kramp,
Presenting Author: Amanda Lee*
Mothers of Sierra Leone (MOSL) began in 2019 as an ambitious attempt to leverage documentary storytelling to improve maternal health in Sierra Leone. As an interdisciplinary effort, we have learned many lessons over six plus years, but one lesson remains paramount: improving maternal health requires meaningful and consistent community partnerships. To develop these community partnerships vital to maternal health in low-income settings, we have adhered to three practices: patience, listening, and curated storytelling.
Sierra Leone endures massive economic and social challenges that impede maternal health, and these massive challenges prompt external charities and social impact agencies to offer immediate assistance. But such efforts rooted in immediacy dismiss patience, and MOSL has learned that patience is vital to appreciating the complexities of individual lives and communities in low-income settings. The health challenges of Sierra Leone are not those of the West, and patience is required to understand the difference and earn community trust.
In the six plus years that we have operated in Sierra Leone, MOSL has patiently listened to women, healthcare workers, and men about their hopes and concerns. We have not mothers about their health and instead listened to women, amplifying their voices in documentary films. As listeners, we have shared the stories of women in Sierra Leone as a method to improve their health experiences.
By listening to people in Sierra Leone, MOSL has been able to curate filmic stories that express both obstacles to maternal health and the opportunities to improve maternal health. Our data from multiyear, mixed-methods research studies demonstrate how women in Sierra Leone become more confident to advocate for themselves in healthcare settings when they see and hear other Sierra Leonean women share their own stories of maternal health. Our work has helped to advance community trust; our work depends on community partnerships.