A health center in Liberia was in ruins providing general services to local residents until it was recently transformed and renovated into “a sacred space of healing” through a project funded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and completed in collaboration by two Liberian organizations.
“If you had seen this place before and now, you would understand that the transformation is remarkable,” stated Liberia’s chief medical officer, Dr. Catherine T. Cooper, at a ceremony celebrating the recently renovated Soniwein Health Center in Monrovia, Liberia.
Addressing the ceremony’s attendees, Cooper vividly described the center’s former state, saying the aging center had become a place where health care workers performed tasks — such as an average of 35 to 50 childbirth deliveries monthly — under leaking roofs and the dim light of a flashlight.
Through the church’s funding and the collaboration between the Liberian Ministry of Health and Ni-Kweeta Contractors, the health center is now able to continue providing general services, including maternal and child health care, to nearby residents with the help of adequate medical resources in a restored facility.
“We want to say thank you to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for their selfless act of love, service and devotion to God and mankind,” Cooper said, expressing gratitude on behalf of the government at the ceremony held Dec. 27.
Cooper said the church’s “continued love and support can never go unnoticed” and urged the center’s health care workers to match the quality of their work to that of the renovated facility. “Now that the environment is greatly improved,” she said, “we expect you to look within yourselves with a new vigor to ensure that patients get better when they enter the walls of the Soniwein Health Center.”
The health center was first established in 1982 and began struggling to meet patients’ needs in recent years due to the area’s population growth, the center’s aging infrastructure and a lack of access to proper medicines and equipment, according to a news release published Jan. 8 on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Now equipped with essential medical instruments — including an ultrasound machine, new delivery and hospital beds, an infant resuscitator, a GeneXpert machine for tuberculosis detection and sterilizing equipment to prevent infections — the renovated center is set to serve the more than 35,000 residents living in Soniwein and surrounding communities in Monrovia, Liberia.
The construction of a new borehole and water tower at the center, along with the center’s new roof, ceilings, windows, doors, and electrical and plumbing systems — among other new features — will also help ensure patients a higher quality of care, according to the church’s release.
“This is more than a list of items. This is a covenant,” said Elder Prince S. Nyanforh, a church Area Seventy in Liberia who offered the ceremony’s closing remarks.
It is “a covenant that a mother in labor will be seen in a clean, well-lit room; a covenant that a sick child can be accurately diagnosed; a covenant that you, the caregivers, can do your jobs without fighting against your own facility,” he said.
Elder Nyanforh then said the ceremony, which celebrated the church officially handing over the renovated facility to the people of Soniwein, was a “dedication of a sacred space of healing and a profound acknowledgment of the human spirit’s resilience.”
He taught every person “possesses infinite worth” and encouraged patients and residents to consider the love of church members worldwide, who made funding the project possible through their “fast offerings and sacrifices.”
“When you see this renovated and well-equipped health facility,” he said, “you will see also the faith and tangible love of thousands of your global neighbors who are trying to obey the Savior’s commandment to love their neighbors.
“We place this trust in your hands, believing that you will honor the personal sacrifices of those people from far and near.”
The health center’s officer in charge, Eleanor K. Sampson was also present at the Dec. 27 ceremony. She said the center’s renovation represents a shared commitment to community health and added that the facility will strengthen their “ability to deliver dignified, safe and quality health care for generations to come.”
