Victory Lamin is the founder of Sierra Lyoa, a newly established health NGO working to improve maternal health in Sierra Leone.
Victor was born and raised in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. After he obtained his undergraduate degree, he began relocating around the world in pursuit of his continuing education. This led him first to China, where he received a Master’s Degree in Diagnostics, then to the Netherlands where he obtained a Doctorate, and finally Australia where he achieved a PhD in Medicine and Surgery. He is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Iowa Hospital. While engaged in his work and studies, however Victor’s mind kept turning back to his homeland and the unnecessary suffering of those who do not have access to adequate health infrastructure.
In 2020, after months of calls with his coordinating personnel in Australia, Holland, and Sierra Leone and fine-tuning of the underlying programmatic concept, Victor launched the Sierra Lyoa Medical Foundation. The mission of this new organization is to overhaul the approach to maternal health in Sierra Leone, and their slogan is “no woman should lose their life trying to give life.” Sierra Leone ranks 188 out of 189 countries in the world on the maternal mortality with 1,120 mothers dying per 100,000 births, more than five times the global average.
The Foundation aims to tackle this problem head on by (i) implementing a mobile prenatal clinic that will travel to rural villages and provide care and referral to pregnant women that they otherwise would never have and (ii) strengthen the capacity of existing hospitals providing maternal health and childbirth services as well as working towards building a new state of the art maternal health facility of their own.
According to Victor “the current lack of access to quality health systems by people living in Sierra Leone has deprived them of life-saving treatment, which further reduces their opportunities to contribute to nation building.” CMMB has approved the organization as a new consignee partner and is excited to begin sending donations of medicines and medical supplies to support the Sierra Lyoa maternal health programming as well as strengthen the capacity of partner facilities in Sierra Leone. Additionally, CMMB’s Maternal Health staff in Kenya have communicated directly with Victor to review program design and best practices.
Thank you, Victor!
