BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa – Prior to the outbreak of Ebola, Joriam Clinic struggled to get everything from gloves to pills. Its owner, Joseph B. Sumo, went through hell and high water to get the needed medical supplies for the privately owned clinic.

“We are a private clinic, and we struggle to get everything,” he said.

On a sunny day in October, Sumo received a call from Daniel Mellish, the Field Director of Building Everyone’s Success Together in West Africa or BESTWA, asking him to come hurriedly to their office.

Upon his arrival, and certainly to his utmost surprise, in airtight packages were medical supplies for his clinic that had temporarily closed amid the outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease.

“We were not expecting it, and it was a big surprise. We have to go to town constantly to buy drugs,” Sumo said. “Sometimes they don’t have the kinds of pills you need, so the donation came as a real big surprise.”

BESTWA is a Liberia-based American NGO and the brainchild of Andy Perkins. With a board containing Liberians and American missionaries, it operates between the two countries, bringing their ties closer via humanitarian means.

The donation to the Joriam Clinic was part of a two-ton contribution of high-quality medical supplies. BESTWA donated the rest of the medical supplies to 25 hospitals and clinics fighting the Ebola Virus Disease across Liberia.

Worth US$2.6 million dollars, the medical supplies came about as a result of BESTWA’s partnerships with Global Assistance and Medical Mission International.

As Sumo recalls that fateful day when he received that anonymous call, a smile cracks open on his face.  His small clinic is located in a vicinity called Old Barracks in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County. The clinic treats preventable diseases such as malaria, typhoid, diarrhea, dysentery and sometimes rabies.

According to him, the donation by BESTWA is the first of any kind since he opened his doors to people with common ailments in March 2006.

“Ebola affected us so badly we had to close and reopened in October. And luckily for us when we reopened, BESTWA came calling with open arms,” he said.

Mellish, BESTWA’s field director, says more donations are expected as the organization gets set on a full-blown activity.

“Our donors in America are about to airlift a huge amount of medical supplies to Liberia,” he said.

The Executive Director of BESTWA, Andy Perkins, added that the organization has imported five containers, each containing 280,000 rice meals, in response to the recent food crises in Buchanan.

Despite these achievements, Perkins says one of their biggest obstacles is getting aid into the country.

“We could send in more than one supply of food and critical medical supplies a month,” he said. “We have only imported five containers in a year because of the difficulty in getting permissions. We do not import expendable medical supplies and surgical equipment because in the past the permissions have taken months, and the storage expense is too great.”

In addition to the feeding program and donation of medical supplies, BESTWA has acquired six acres of land in Buchanan where it is building its headquarters and a birthing clinic.  BESTWA recently completed a Memorandum of Understanding with Grand Bassa Community College whereby GBCC will do classroom training, and the BESTWA Birthing Clinic will provide practical, hands-on experience with a midwifery program.

When completed, the clinic will not only host and cater to pregnant women but also those who are suffering from treatable illnesses.

BESTWA operates in Liberia with a local staff of nearly 30.  The US side provides funds and materials.  The Liberian side feeds and provides medical care to more than 900 children, as well as aid to local orphanages and the National Aged & Disabled Folks Home.

Featured photo courtesy of Gboko Stewart