In Liberia, STH prevalence ranges between 7.5% and 62% with 13 out of 15 counties requiring treatment at least once annually. After attending a regional meeting on school-based deworming in The Gambia in March 2010, the Government of Liberia developed a national school-based deworming plan and undertook a deworming campaign in 2010 with support from UNICEF.

Upon integrating school-based deworming into the Liberia Education Sector Plan in 2011, the Government obtained financial support from the Fast Track Initiative (now the Global Partnership for Education) for deworming. In 2012, the Government is poised to expand school-based deworming nationally with the aim of treating over 750,000 children in 8 counties. The Liberia National School-Based Deworming Program is led by the Ministry of Education’s School Health Division in collaboration with the Ministry of Health & Social Welfare (MoHSW).

DtW Support for Liberia

DtW is providing technical assistance to the Government through:

• Geographic targeting. DtW assisted with the development of a treatment prioritization plan integrating recent MoHSW data and other existing mapping data.
• Technical Consulting on all steps of program. DtW has provided support in program planning, budgeting, development of key materials including eligibility criteria for Master Trainers, a training cascade plan and training materials for use at the national to the school level. DtW also supported Government staff to conduct a three day Master Training session to provide capacity to a special team of civil servants at the national and county levels. The Master Training team is equipped to initiate a training and drug distribution cascade, bringing the National School-Based Deworming Program from the national level to schools, teachers and Liberian schoolchildren.
• Supporting monitoring and evaluation efforts. In close collaboration with the coordinating ministries, DtW helped design a monitoring and evaluation plan for the National School-Based Deworming Program, including the development of relevant monitoring materials to ensure that program results are comprehensively captured and that the Government and other partners have the tools and information to make continual program improvements.
• Strengthening partnerships. DtW has facilitated regular meetings and workshops with the implementing ministries and local development partners to create a cross-sectoral program that leverages the relative strengths of all partners and related bodies.
• Coordinating pill donations. DtW facilitated a donation of 200,000 mebendazole tablets for the Government in 2010.
• Strengthening regional collaboration. DtW has played an active role in strengthening regional collaboration by linking the Liberia program with other regional school-based deworming programs in Nigeria and Gambia through cross training of senior officials.