Despite the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Liberia’s fortification program has made impressive strides in the past few months, thanks to our hard-working partners on the ground. Despite the burden to the health care system while the country battles the worst outbreak of Ebola in history, the dedicated staffs of Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the National Standards Laboratory, and the National Fortification Alliance have pushed forward.
In July, Liberia’s first cadre of inspectors from the Ministries of Finance, Health and Social Welfare, and Commerce were trained on sampling and inspection procedures.
As of October, the first domestically produced and imported samples of fortified foods were received and tested at the National Standards Laboratory. Although there is expected work to be completed on making sure all foods are fortified at the prescribed levels, all samples were fortified, indicating an important first step for the Liberia program.
Due to this rapid progress, GAIN agreed to donate two additional iChecks – one for sugar to be placed in the lab, and one for oil, to be placed at the Port of Monrovia — all of which will lead to ongoing compliance and monitoring.
These achievements would not have been possible without the support of our donors. Project Healthy Children is extremely proud of the progress that the team in Liberia has enabled over the past several months.