Savior Flomo Mendin is Last Mile Health’s County Manager in Grand Bassa, Liberia. On March 8, 2021, Savior joined a panel of international experts for a World Health Organization #LearningSavesLives webinar to discuss gender equity and the COVID-19 response.
Savior’s remarks highlighted the immense contributions of women in healthcare in Liberia and the need to address the barriers they face at every level of the health system.
There are now more than 4,000 community health workers deployed across the country in the Government of Liberia’s National Community Health Assistant Program, but only 20% of them are women. Savior offered insight into Last Mile Health’s work to identify and address the underlying causes of this disparity in partnership with the government.
“We are making recommendations to address some of these barriers and we changed some of our recruitment practices… so we can really have an inclusive space,” she said.
Savior also called for more professional development and career advancement opportunities for women in the health workforce. And she encouraged women to create their own opportunities: “Women’s contributions to care work are so enormous. We need to step forward and reclaim our space, to claim our seat at the table. This reminds me of something Shirley Chisholm said – ‘If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.’ We need many more folding chairs now.”
Watch the full event:
