Christian Health Association Sierra Leone
Christ Is The Answer (CITA) International, is not for profit corporation dedicated to enabling and empowering the rural poor of Sierra Leone, especially the most vulnerable groups, with the aim of achieving an improved standard of living by working in partnership with local groups to create community initiatives for transformative actions.
Our overall goal is to increase the effectiveness of local groups and communities in solving their own problems and in achieving their own goals, by providing help and support for projects, programs and activities that address one or more forms of the problem. Support would be in the form of funding, materials, and personnel in areas such as prayer and worship, health, education, agriculture, and transport and communication. High priorities that we help and support include:
1. Health Clinics that provide basic outpatient health care as well as 24 to 36 hour-in-patient care en-route to hospital, hence Nar Sarah Clinic.
• To reduce maternal and under five mortality
• To reduce mortality and morbidity caused by common illnesses, including malaria and diarrhoea
• To educate Koinadugu District residents about health and hygiene
• Stem the spread of HIV/AIDS
2. Educational scholarships to provide “financial support to 3000 “needy” elementary, secondary, and University of Sierra Leone students (1500 elementary, 1000 secondary and 500 university students).
3. Empower Women Against Poverty
4. Agricultural supplements to provide financial, material and technical support to increase productivity by farmers and fishermen for 3 consecutive years. Support for 2nd and 3rd years would be dependent on performance of the previous year.
5. Human relationship development and management through support of local churches and other civic organizations that promote health of shattered relationships.
CITA International Background Information
CITA International is a registered International Non-Government Organization (NGO) in Sierra Leone. It was a dream of Dorcas Kamanda in 1968while she was a secondary school student at Harford School for Girls in Sierra Leone. Now after forty years the dream is a reality in Kabala, Sierra Leone.
During the rebel war, Dorcas’ brother, Peacemaker and sister Finah, provided health care to many at great danger to themselves. After the war they continued giving health care and provided pre-natal, maternity and post natal care using their family home as a clinic. In 2002, Dorcas returned to Sierra Leone and found the destruction and suffering of her village and the country as a whole. Infrastructure had been wiped out and the survivors of the civil was faced each day without electricity, healthcare, education, employment and other basic needs required for a minimal standard of living. Dorcas and her family decided it was time for her dream to come true.
CITA International began as a first response to the people’s need for health care in the Koinadugu District, the largest and poorest district in Sierra Leone. By the end of the war, there was not a single functioning hospital in the district. The NarSarah Clinic (named after Dorcas’ mother) began as a temporary part time clinic in 2004 with Peacemaker and Finah volunteering their time. The NarSarah Clinic officially opened in 2005 to meet the region’s healthcare needs. Since then, the Clinic under CITA International has rapidly expanded to support other local initiatives in education, women’s empowerment and agriculture, and continues to provide humanitarian relief aid to help those most in need.
NarSarah Clinic has moved from emergency care during the war to maternity care in the immediate post war period, and to total health care, sustainable peace building and community development at this period in the transition process. Today, CITA International serves over 7,500 people each year, and the original NarSarah Clinic remains the core of the organisation’s programs.
The Community initiatives that CITA International supports are help to transform the district from the place of suffering it was after the war to a place of hope, progress, and development. In the coming years, CITA hopes to nationalize and connect with other communities in Sierra Leone to bring transformative action through local, grassroots efforts and vision.
2013 Copyright CHRISTIAN HEALTH ASSOCATION