We have completed our trial of 2YoungLives!

In 2021 we joined up with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Kings College London, the University of Sierra Leone, Welbodi Partnership, and others as part of NIHR-funded Global Health Group – CRIBS – Capacity Research Innovation Building maternity Systems to run a pilot cluster-randomised control trial. We selected 12 communities and randomly assigned 2YL to 6 of them, and compared outcomes with 6 communities without 2YL. The trial shows that in communities where 2YoungLives is running, the number of deaths (of girls and their babies before 28 days) is reduced by 48%! Supportive, intentional relationships are powerful and save lives. Well done 2YoungLives team!! You can read the full article here in The Lancet.

Respectful community engagement is key to what we do as Lifeline Nehemiah Projects. We say ‘it takes a million conversations to change a mindset’.

Prince Tommy Williams, Mangenda, Francess and PS visited our 6 new 2YL communities 3 times to ensure that the whole community bought in to the 2YoungLives vision. Teenage pregnancy affects everyone and people were happy to engage in real discussions about real life issues.

Collecting health data on under-18’s and their babies

Our data collectors Osman and Mary with Mangenda, Appiah and key community stakeholders. We are found out what happens to every pregnant under-18 year old in 12 community health centres to understand the difference that 2YL made.

Recruiting mentors for our 6 new teams.

We meet with community members and leaders to identify women who are kind, mature and respected in the community to be our volunteer mentors and team coordinators.

We also piloted Lifeline’s unique Community-led Voluntary Blood Donation scheme, Gi4SaveLife, in a rural district. Many women and children die needlessly because of a shortage of donated blood. In a 8 month period we recruited 376 donors and collected 539 units of blood.

You don’t have to be a doctor to save life. Just give blood!

Young people from LNP on their way to donate blood for Ola During children’s hospital
Sister Mariatu Duraman with Prince at Koidu Hospital Blood bank
Engaging communities on blood donation
Funded by the ESRC Impact fund, the LNP team are working in partnership with Koidu hospital to increase voluntary blood donation.