PAYNESVILLE – Over 100 rising public well being professionals and college students from throughout Liberia have concluded a day-long convention aimed toward inspiring the following era of well being leaders to sort out among the nation’s most urgent public well being challenges by innovation, advocacy, and collaboration.
The Nationwide Rising Public Well being College students Convention 2025, organized by the Hope Rising Coronary heart Initiative (HRHI) in collaboration with Golden Waste Options Enterprise Inc., introduced collectively younger folks finding out or working in health-related fields to alternate concepts with consultants and policymakers on the way forward for public well being in Liberia.
The convention was held underneath the theme: “Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders: Innovating Public Well being for a Sustainable Future.” Facilitators had been drawn from key public well being and environmental establishments, together with the Nationwide Public Well being Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), the Environmental Safety Company (EPA), and the Ministry of Well being. Matters mentioned ranged from environmental well being, waste administration, and illness prevention to the rising threats of antimicrobial resistance and non-communicable illnesses.
In his remarks on the opening of the convention, Lawrance J.W. Sergbou, Nation Director of Hope Rising Coronary heart Initiative, underscored the necessity to place younger folks on the middle of Liberia’s well being transformation efforts.
“Youth usually are not passive recipients of change; they’re the changemakers,” Sergbou mentioned. “This platform was designed to attach data with motion and fervour with goal as we search new options to Liberia’s public well being challenges.”
In response to Sergbou, the convention kinds a part of HRHI’s broader efforts to strengthen well being consciousness and management amongst younger folks, constructing on earlier initiatives resembling faculty well being golf equipment, reproductive well being workshops, malaria prevention campaigns, and HIV/AIDS training throughout Montserrado County.
Serving as visitor speaker, Mrs. Jamesetta Sosome Goaneh-Chesson, a veteran well being advocate, referred to as on younger public well being professionals to advocate for behavioral change inside their communities and to leverage expertise to advertise public well being messages.
“Younger leaders should embrace the duty of teaching their friends and communities,” Mrs. Goaneh-Chesson mentioned. “Use expertise to create content material that informs folks about well being dangers and how you can defend themselves. That is the way you contribute to nationwide improvement in right this moment’s world.”
Individuals welcomed the convention as a well timed alternative to sharpen their data and strengthen their networks. Christine Forehead, a participant, described the occasion as eye-opening and inspired her friends to reap the benefits of comparable alternatives that contribute to skilled development and nationwide improvement.
“I encourage different younger folks to grab these alternatives, which assist us contribute meaningfully to Liberia’s well being sector,” Forehead mentioned.
The organizers say the convention serves as a place to begin for deeper engagements between younger folks, authorities establishments, and civil society to advertise well being innovation, management, and accountability in Liberia’s public well being house.
