Cover Story
Sierra Leone
“Despite our efforts to fight the
spread of the disease people were
cutting pipes to collect water in
sewage. And worse yet there are
adults who have made it a habit
to defecate in plastic bags that
they throw into the streets. This is
not the Sierra Leone I remember.”
32 GOWOMAN SEPTEMBER|2013
because people like your
style according to Miatta,
the only thing that matters,
is the ability to deliver. It is
this commitment to getting
things done that she says she
has to offer the people and
government of Sierra Leone.
Two years ago Miatta Kargbo
took a one year sabbatical
from her job in the US to
take up an advisory role
in the Strategy and Policy
Unit in the Office of the
President. In her capacity as
presidential advisor, she was
the lead on Health, Labor and
Information. Miatta says this
gave her a new appreciation
for public health. It was the
first time she could see the
human impact of the work
she was undertaking. When
her sabbatical ended, Miatta
felt that her work in Sierra
Leone was unfinished. So
President Koroma requested
that the company extend her
sabbatical for one additional
year so she may continue
to serve at home and they
agreed.
In 2012 she was at the helm
of the cholera epidemic that
killed an estimated 392 people
in Sierra Leone. She explains
that the epidemic was as
much a failure of the national
health infrastructure as it was
a showing of the unsanitary
practices that people have
picked up by living in
uninhabitable conditions.
"It was an epidemic and a
public health emergency”,
she says. The civil war has
brought thousands of people
into the capital city who are
living in places with no access
to running water or proper
sanitation.
Communities
have formed in areas that the
government has repeatedly
indicated as unfit for people
to live.
GOWOMAN SEPTEMBER|2013
33