AHL Staff, Sierra Leone

Fatmata has been Library Administrator of Makeni Hospital Library since March 2013. 

The library is based at Makeni Government Hospital, Makama. 

Fatmata has trained three other AHL library administrators (past and present) in the AHL system of borrowing and record-keeping

Joel joined the AHL team in 2018.

Joel is the first AHL Library Administrator at Kenema Government Hospital.  Kenema Hospital Library opened to members in July 2018. 

Joel has some previous training in community health and has just successfully completed a computer training course.

Sheik Umar Sesay has been a Library Manager for over seven years, with experience of working across different library settings. He is an online library databases tutor and has trained students in online searching techniques for the past five years. He is a trained and qualified Computer Hardware Engineering and Computer Network Administrator (2012) and has a BA Hons in Library Archives and Information Studies (2012) and a Diploma in Library Archives and Information Studies (2009), both from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone. He is a member of the Sierra Leone Association of Archivists and Information Professionals. He hopes to bring an automated library system to African Hospital Libraries, developing a digital library system that eases access to information. 

Claire worked a volunteer doctor at Makeni Government Hospital in Sierra Leone between 2012 and 2013 and has returned to Sierra Leone several times since, including during the Ebola response. 

Claire co-founded the first AHL Library at Makeni Government Hospital in 2013.  She is passionate about improving access to relevant and up-to-date health information for clinicians, allied health professionals, and hospital managers in sub-Saharan Africa, for locally-driven and locally-relevant quality improvement activities which positively impact on patient care. 

Claire is currently studying part-time for a DPhil in Clinical Medicine at the University of Oxford, and is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Leeds. She has previously worked as General Practitioner and a Lecturer in International Public Health. She was an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Oxford (Primary Care). Claire holds a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (Liverpool), a Diploma in Health Research (Oxford), and has completed postgraduate professional exams in medicine (MRCP), general practice (MRCGP) and public health (Part A - DFPH). She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). 

Following 16 years in financial services, 7 of which were in a variety of compliance, operational rigour and risk roles, Tracey changed focus to the third sector to lead education development projects for The Phoenix Projects in Guatemala and Ecuador for four years including designing and implementing sustainable income generating livelihoods initiatives. In her next role with VSO she led International Citizen Service volunteer programmes in Kenya and Sierra Leone, focussing on youth advocacy and empowerment.     On returning to the UK, Tracey joined Cancer Research UK as a Compliance Manager specialising in fundraising and maintains active links with the projects she worked on in Latin America and also with Sierra Leone in her Trustee role with African Hospital Libraries.  

Mrs Fatmata Kanjia Jalloh is the Senior Matron of the University of Sierra Leone Teaching Hospital Complex, Connaught Hospital, which is the main referral hospital in Sierra Leone. Before that, she served as Matron at the Kenema Government Hospital in the Eastern Region and the Makeni Regional Hospital in the Northern Region of Sierra Leone. Mrs Fatmata Kanjia Jalloh has been working as a Hospital Matron for the last twelve (12) years.

She began working for the Government of Sierra Leone as a State Enrolled Community Health nurse in 1993, since then she has worked in various hospitals including Kingharman Road (Satellite) hospital, Koindu Government hospital, Connaught hospital, Expanded Programme Immunisation (EPI)-Medical Store; and was also temporarily assigned to the District Health Management Team Western Area where she worked in communities within the Western Area and the Freetown Peninsula during the ebola outbreak in the Country. Throughout her over 20-years of professional career, she has served as Preceptor, Life skills saving Trainer, Vesico Vagina Fistula (VVF) Screener, Nursing Examiner, and Executive Member of the Sierra Leone Nurses Association, Mentor-Emergency Obstetric & Newborn Care, Quality of Care Champion etc. In addition to her services with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, she has also worked for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) as Rainbow Centre Manager for the Kono Programme and was actively involved in the operations and management of the African Hospital Library in Makeni and Kenema. Matron Fatmata Kanjia Jalloh holds an MPH (2018) from the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences-University of Sierra Leone, and a Bachelor of Science degree with Honours in Nursing (2010) from the same institution, with an elective programme with the University of Ibadan Teaching hospital in Nigeria, Diploma in Sexual Reproductive Health (2016) from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM-UK), and numerous training certificates in Management and Leadership, Hospital Management, Women's Health at both International and National levels.

Matron Fatmata Kanjia Jalloh, is a Foundation Fellow of the Sierra Leone Postgraduate College of Nursing & Midwifery, a Member of Sigma Theta Tau International, and a Fellow Member of the West African College of Nursing (WACN-2013) and a member of the Sierra Leone Nurses Association.

Rhys is a Librarian at Swansea Bay University Health Board (formerly ABMU Health Board). He has been working in health libraries since 2014 having worked at Prince Charles and Singleton Hospital. He is now the Library Services Manager for Morriston Hospital. Previously, he worked within Public Libraries for Swansea City County Council. He is particularly interested in information skills training for access to health resources.