MONROVIA, Montserrado – The over 6,000 residents of the VOA East Community on the Robertsfield Highway recently celebrated the opening of the area’s first health facility.

The J. J. Memorial Health Center is privately owned by Jacob Wapoe, a health practitioner.

Wapoe told The Bush Chicken that his dream of constructing the facility came about while in Ghana as a refugee.

His sister-in-law had fallen ill and was rushed to a hospital in Tema, owned by a Ghanaian who was not a medical doctor.

“I had the opportunity to meet the hospital owner and asked how he arrived at such an idea,” he said.

Wapoe said the hospital in Ghana had been built to provide medical care for women and children.

“Doctors were brought from Cuba to help provide medical services to Ghanaians and others attending the hospital,” he said.

Wapoe said while leaving the hospital, he thought of bringing back to Liberia what he saw in Tema in order to provide health services to Liberians, particularly women and children.

Jacob L. N. Wapoe, chief executive officer of J. J. Memorial Health Center. Photo: Zeze Ballah

The VOA East Community, according to Wapoe, is rapidly growing and has never had a health center to cater to its expanding population.

Wapoe said his primary goal was not to profit from the institution, but rather to provide quality health services to the immediate community and its surroundings. He said he went into debt to construct the US$100,000 facility.

Wapoe, who is also an employee of the Ministry of Health, said he is fully aware of the government’s challenges in the health sector. In the past, he said residents had no option but to seek medical care at the ELWA and St. Joseph Catholic Hospitals. “Some children lost their lives in the process due to the distance,” he said.

Several high profile individuals graced the occasion, including Peter Coleman, senator of Grand Kru and chairman of the Committee on Health, who commended Wapoe, saying that the practitioner could have done something different with his money but chose to invest and provide health services for the people of VOA East Community.

Coleman said Liberia has some of the worst health indicators in the world.

“It is a fact that a lot still needs to be done about health for the people of Liberia,” he said.

Peter Coleman, senator of Grand Kru. Photo: Zeze Ballah

The senator said while Liberia is doing well in some areas, such as on the issue of immunization, many women were still dying from pregnancy-related complications.

He called on other Liberians in the health sector to emulate Wapoe’s act.

Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyensuah, who was also present, said the construction of the health center would help provide services to pregnant women and children. “The initiative by Wapoe is not a selfish aim but rather selfless, meant to promote the health care of Liberians,” he said. “The government alone cannot provide the access of health care Liberians need.”

Post-operative ward with ten beds at the J. J. Memorial Health Center. Photo: Zeze Ballah

Nyensuah explained that a recent measles outbreak in the Mamba Kaba District of Margibi was due to the lack of public health facilities being able to provide immunizations to children. He said an immunization program would be set up at the new health center by the Ministry of Health.

Community members like James G. Gbahn lauded Wapoe for his efforts and said the construction of the health center would bring relief to the community.

Gbahn urged residents of the VOA east community to make maximum use of the facility, noting “Wapoe has played his role and the rest is left to the community.”

Guests at the opening ceremony of the J.J. Memorial Health Center. Photo: Zeze Ballah

The health center includes a labor ward, delivery room, postpartum ward, consultation room, vaccination room, pharmacy and one post-operative ward with ten beds. There is also a pediatric room and a waiting area.

The center’s 22 staff members include doctors, physician’s assistants, nurses, midwives, and laboratory technicians.

Featured photo by Zeze Ballah