Filed in by Olando Testimony Zeongar – 0776819983/0880-361116/life2short4some@yahoo.com
Monrovia – Medical experts including doctors and nurses based in Switzerland have disclosed plans to offer training for nurses at Liberia’s Benson Hospital, established in 2003 by Dr. Jimi Benson and his wife Dr. Angela Benson in Paynesville City.
The establishment of the 60-bed Benson Hospital with daily average outpatient rate of 60 patients per day, was necessitated by the urgency to meeting the pressing health needs of the vulnerable low-socio economic Paynesville area that sits closely to the densely populated Red Light commercial hub.
Benson Hospital, formerly a community health clinic, during the Liberian 14-year civil upheaval, was used by Medicens Sans Frontiers/Spain (MSF) as a field hospital. The facility was later turned over to Dr. Jimi Benson and his wife Dr. Angela by MSF in 2010 as the country’s emergency period phased out, and the facility is now open to the public on a more humanitarian basis than a commercial operation, according to the Bensons.
Benson Hospital currently provides quality services at the secondary level including antenatal, deliveries, post-natal care, child care, medical and surgical services.
Making the nurses training program disclosure during a recent tour of Benson Hospital, Swiss based German nurse Marcel Buchmann, said plans are afoot for medical experts in Switzerland to travel to Liberia to conduct a Training of Trainers (ToT) program.
Marcel, who on behalf of the group of medical experts based in Switzerland, made a donation of assorted medical supply and equipment including surgical implement to Benson Hospital, said he was impressed with the level of work being done at the health facility and intimated that he along with his colleagues and partners look forward to doing more for Benson Hospital.
He also disclosed that in the future, there will be a nurses-exchange program, which will enable two or three nurses from Liberia to travel to Switzerland for advance training.
Within four to six weeks’ time, a Memorandum of Understanding is expected to be signed between the medical experts and Benson Hospital, so as to kick start the ToT for nurses at the huge Liberian health facility, according to Marcel.
Marcel noted that he sees being a part of a team of experts offering to assist nurses in Liberia as an opportunity to help a lot of people, adding that when his partner, the founder of Bowier Trust Foundation Switzerland (BTFS), Felix Walz asked him (Marcel) to come to Liberia and help, “I never thought that this was a chance to come and help a lot of people.”
For his part, the founder of BTFS and mastermind behind the medical experts’ decision to forge a partnership with Benson Hospital aimed at training its nurses, Felix Walz, said it amazes him to meet people with high passion and commitment in doing anything, indicating that the Swiss-based medical experts really want to do some concrete things in Liberia.
“And for me as a longtime partner, having worked for the United Nations Mission in Liberia for some years, I have made a life [time] decision after my retirement to come back here to continue to work with my staff,” said Felix, who stated that over the last past years, his organization has provided a lot of training in project management, in community peacebuilding activities, adding, “among those, the WASH project has turned out to be actually the most important – that people have access to clean water, which is a means for health prevention, number one, and number two, I realize that my staff and their families, have so big challenges to have access for medical treatment.”
Felix said he then decided to use his network back home in Switzerland to activate some channels that has actually led to the situation where experts will be coming to Liberia to train several nurses in the country.
“I am just a mechanism. I love to have people around me that have skills and have passion – I am proud to have our children, they are our future. I am proud to have people like Marcel, I am proud to have people like my staff – and I can promise you that as long as we have that inspiration from God, I shall not stop,” Felix emphasized.
Benson Hospital CEO, Dr. Jimi Benson, thanked the medical experts and Felix, for their gesture, stating that their help is highly appreciated, and it made him feel great, “because this hospital, after the war, the first group of NGO that came here is from Switzerland. So I’m so happy to see a group again from Switzerland to come help us.”
He said the donation of assorted medical supply and equipment will go a long way in helping Benson Hospital in it strive to provide humanitarian medical services to thousands of Liberians, saying, the donated items are “going to help us a lot, especially the instrument for operation. We are happy that they are showing that interest in us.”
“We are going to make use of it, and I can assure you that even the prices we are giving our patients, we are going to cut it down a little bit because of what you have done for us. We are going to do that so that they can enjoy some of the things that you have brought for us,” said Dr. Jimi, who expressed the hope that whatever assistance the experts can provide Benson Hospital in the future, that would not be stressful for them, but convenient, would come in speedily.
“Whatever you’re able to do for us – either you bring people here to train us, or we go over there, which ever you think is better for you that will make you comfortable, that’s what we are looking forward to,” said Dr. Jimi, who stressed that “because we have started this, we are not going to relent our effort in helping human beings until death do us part. So thank you very much.”
