Liberian Communities Research Articles

Maternity waiting homes and traditional midwives in rural Liberia

ObjectiveMaternity waiting homes (MWHs) can reduce maternal morbidity and mortality by increasing access to skilled birth attendants (SBAs). The present analysis was conducted to determine whether MWHs increase the use of SBAs at rural primary health clinics in Liberia; to determine whether traditional midwives (TMs) are able to work with SBAs as a team and to describe the perceptions of TMs as they engage with SBAs; and to determine whether MWHs decrease maternal and child morbidity and mortality. MethodsThe present analysis was conducted halfway through a large cohort study in which 5 Liberian communities received the intervention (establishment of an MWH) and 5 Liberian communities did not (control group). Focus groups were conducted to examine the views of TMs on their integration into health teams. ResultsCommunities with MWHs experienced a significant increase in team births from baseline to post-intervention (10.8% versus 95.2%, P<0.001), with greater TM engagement. Lower rates of maternal and perinatal death were reported from communities with MWHs. ConclusionThe reduction in morbidity and mortality indicates that the establishment of MWHs is an effective strategy to increase the use of SBAs, improve the collaboration between SBAs and TMs, and improve maternal and neonatal health.

Changed and Changing Gender and Family Roles and Domestic Violence in African Refugee Background Communities Post-Settlement in Perth, Australia

In this study, domestic violence (DV) in five African refugee background communities post-settlement in Perth, Australia, is investigated-specifically, the interrelationship between experiences of DV, and changed and changing gender and family roles and responsibilities. The participatory qualitative design utilized in-depth interviews with 54 members of the Somalian, Sierra Leonean, Ethiopian, Liberian and Sudanese Communities, and focus groups with 24 professionals who support them. Three key dimensions of this interrelationship are discussed: "male loss of the breadwinner role and status," "financial independence," and "mismatch between formal response and expectations." The importance of understanding experiences of DV within the context of cultural transition is highlighted here.

“Where the Mask Ends and the Face Begins Is Not Certain”: Mediating Ethnicity and Cheating Geography in Jonny Steinberg's Little Liberia

Summary Mixing historical commentary, reportage, biography and personal stories, South African writer Jonny Steinberg takes up the tale of a fractured African nation and its diaspora in Little Liberia: An African Odyssey in New York City (2011). The “little Liberia” founded in New York's urban jungle may have represented, for many of its inhabitants, a way to “cheat geography” by recreating a home away from home, but Little Liberia shows the reader it has not allowed them to cheat history. The book deals with the lives of two inhabitants of Park Hill Avenue on Staten Island, where nearly everyone is Liberian. Their conflict threatens to implode the community, igniting suspicions and accusations that had been bottled up since their exile. The article focuses on the interface of mediated ethnicity and citizenship related to the struggle for power in the diasporic Liberian community on Staten Island. Attention is also paid to feelings of identity of Little Liberia's author.

“ . . . There is No War Here; It is Only the Relationship That Makes Us Scared”

This article explores the factors that have an impact on domestic violence in African refugee communities, with specific reference to the Liberian community in South Australia. Seventeen focus group discussions were undertaken with women participants of the Liberian Women's Gathering. The nested ecological model (Dutton, 2001; Heise, 1998) is used to conceptualize the factors having an impact on domestic violence. The findings suggest that disruption to traditional gender roles has an impact on domestic violence at the cultural, socioeconomic, familial, and individual levels and that women's experience of domestic violence must be understood in relation to the acute and prolonged stressors of war, loss, and displacement.

Refugees, Rights, and Race: How Legal Status Shapes Liberian Immigrants' Relationship with the State

Drawing on three years of participant observation in a Liberian immigrant community, this article examines the role of legal refugee status in immigrants' daily encounters with the state. Using the literature on immigrant incorporation, claims making, and citizenship, it argues that refugee status profoundly shapes individuals' views and expectations of their host government as well as their interactions with the medical, educational, and social service institutions they encounter. The refugees in this study use their refugee status to make claims for legal and social citizenship and to distance themselves from native-born blacks. In doing so, they validate their own position vis-à-vis the state and in the American ethno-racial hierarchy. The findings presented demonstrate how refugee status operates as a symbolic and interpretive resource used to negotiate the structural realities of the welfare state and American race relations. These results stress the importance of studying immigrant incorporation from a micro perspective and suggest mechanisms for the adaptational advantages for refugees reported in existing research.

Ivermectin controls onchocerciasis in a Liberian community over a 2-year period

Ivermectin controls onchocerciasis in a Liberian community over a 2-year period

Bacterial contamination of stored water and stored food: a potential source of diarrhoeal disease in West Africa.

The food and water hygiene in two Liberian communities was studied in a house-to-house diarrhoea survey. The level of contamination with enterobacteria of drinking water stored in the households was significantly higher than at the water sources. Food hygiene standards were low, particularly in the urban slum where storage of cooked food for long periods led to bacterial multiplication at high levels. Infant foods were particularly heavily contaminated. It is concluded that when water supply programmes are planned, the presence of other risk factors for water-related diseases should be investigated. To ensure maximum health benefits, water projects should as a rule be accompanied by other interventions.

High prevalence of campylobacter excretors among Liberian children related to environmental conditions.

Campylobacter was the bacterial pathogen most prevalent in 859 children, aged 6-59 months, examined in a house-to-house diarrhoea survey in two Liberian communities. 44.9% of the children from an urban slum and 28.4% from a rural area were excretors. Since the prevalence of diarrhoea was very high and consequently many convalescent carriers were found, it was not possible to evaluate the pathogenic role of campylobacter. The excretor rate increased with age and was significantly correlated to the use of supplementary feeding, inversely correlated to the quality of the water supply, and also associated with helminthic infestation. Results from re-examination of 172 children suggested a high intensity of transmission. The findings all indicate the existence of a heavy environmental contamination with campylobacter, probably of both human and animal faecal origin.

The Boundaries of History in Oral Performance

What do African tellers of history tell it for? What do they mean by history and how differently is the past transmitted in different communities? Professional academic historians use oral data like documentary data, for their own ends. They work in a different medium--written language--and they offer back a new story to the original donors. They do not always pay attention to the ways in which these consumers produced their own versions and perpetuated them embedded in performances. The indigenous occasions of performance are also easily replaced by the record of an outside researcher's chance intervention.Oral performances of history differ--in kind, in the extent to which past events are a focus of attention, in the readiness of individuals to answer an outsider's questions, in the types and structures of recall. The patterns I describe for one Liberian community may be quite different for its ethnic neighbors. As a social anthropologist I assume that recall is not a purely individual phenomenon, and besides trying to understand what connections there may be between types of recall and types of social condition, I want to see how personal reminiscence (as well as tradition) is formulated, sustained, and recapitulated; to whom it is repeated; whether it is hinted or used overtly as a weapon. By taking these issues into account I believe we can also interpret better the historical data from oral performance, just as we need to know about all the genres of performance if we are to recognize the uses of history there may be in apparently non-historical modes.

Gastroduodenitis and peptic ulcer in a rural Liberian community—an endoscopic prospective study

Gastroduodenitis and peptic ulcer in a rural Liberian community—an endoscopic prospective study