PRESS RELEASE

EUROPEAN UNION AWARDS A THREE YEAR GRANT TO PLAN INTERNATIONAL FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A HEALTH PROJECT IN PORT LOKO DISTRICT

The European Union has awarded a grant of nine hundred seventy-nine thousand, five hundred fifty-one Euros (€979,551) to Plan for the implementation of a three-year health project through Plan in Sierra Leone in Port Loko district from July 2012 to June 2015.

The objectives of the three-year Project: “Child Survival and Development in Port Loko District” are:

1. To contribute towards the reduction of maternal and under-five mortality within Port Loko district.

2. To improve the health and cognitive, physical, mental, behavioural and social development of children under-five years of age in Port Loko district of Sierra Leone.

3. To increase access to improved basic health and Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) services in 11 Chiefdoms of Port Loko district in Sierra Leone by 2014.

Plan in Sierra Leone will implement the project in partnership with local NGOs: Pikin-to-Pikin Movement, Amazonian Initiative Movement (AIM) and the Port Loko District Health Management Team (DHMT).

The project will be implemented in the following eleven chiefdoms: Bureh-Kasseh-Makonteh (BKM), Buya Romende, Dibia, Kaffu Bullom, Koya, Lokomasama, Maforki, Marampa, Masimera, Sanda Magbolontor and Tinkatopa-Makama-Safroko (TMS).

The Project will be jointly launched by the Delegation of the European Union in Sierra Leone, Government of Sierra Leone; Plan Sierra Leone, Plan Netherlands and the implementing partners Pikin-to-Pikin Movement, AIM and the Port Loko DHMT at 11:00 on Tuesday 17th July 2012 in Port Loko town.