This ETAT hits different

Every ETAT plus workshop has its own character, its own personalities contributing to an ecosystem of learning. Some are wild and chaotic, with facilitators and participants changing at the last minute and technical challenges. Others feel smoother and more planned. Some have involved 8 hour journeys over bumpy roads, others end with cheeseburgers and vimto on the beach.

Since June 2019, the ETAT plus train has been trundling around Liberian hospitals picking up facilitators and dropping off knowledge and local ETAT plus champions who have continued to spread the skillset throughout the country. The train has gathered momentum and become recognised and appreciated nationally. Invitations for us to stop off at various hospitals are piling up faster than we can keep pace with.

But our first training of 2026 has felt different. Somehow more professional, better organised. At some previous trainings day one has been an exhausting exercise in trying to find participants and get started, but here our first day here felt smooth. Calm. Filled with a sense of desire to learn.

The participants were there on time, some even early. The room was already set up, carefully divided into groups ready for practical action. Thoughtful touches, such as the food being both delicious and early, make a huge impact. By now the presenters know their material well, and can field questions from the participants, turning previously one-sided talks into spiral staircases of escalating knowledge.

It helps that the whole week before had been spent with some of our facilitators putting the training into reality at Jesus Loves Me. Practice all week has been in line with the ETAT plus guidelines and applied with grace and energy. One 5-year-old girl came in with malaria, seizing and struggling for breath. Anywhere else this would be game over, but here is built different. The triage team, including a nurse aide affectionately known as “ambulance” came running down the corridor, shouting for help and carrying the girl. Within 5 minutes of arrival, she was on oxygen, had received intravenous antimalarials and antibiotics, and was on her way to being stabilised.

48 hours later and she is sitting up eating and playing with her sister.

Today we practiced CPAP, a concept barely used in Liberia until 6 years ago. Now most of the participants have at least an awareness of how CPAP can help babies, and some of the participants have already used it. This meant that the discussion could move on to pressure levels and other details. For the practical part, every station had its own oxygen concentrator providing a far more interactive learning experience.

By far the highlight of the training workshop came during a small movie taken from inside the inpatient ward at Jesus Loves Me of a little 5-month-old baby girl on CPAP. The little girl was struggling, each breath a battle to hold on. Yet the CPAP was clearly helping, bubbling and active while she was surrounded by attentive nurses and closely monitored. As the movie came to a close, the little girl was brought in to meet all the ETAT participants, breathing now back to normal and fully healed. That brought the house down!

That’s why this stuff matters. ETAT plus gives hospitals a system of care with years of evidence and research of positive outcomes. And behind those statistics, little ones who would have been lost to bronchiolitis, malaria, meningitis, malnutrition, neonatal sepsis and many other conditions. Little ones whose lives almost ended who now get to grow up and get to know their siblings, their parents. Who get to make friends. Girls who get to dance and try on lappas and have their first crush. Little boys who get to play football and explore the villages and grow their own families.

I believe in Liberia. I believe there can be a strong healthcare system here, strong enough to carry all these little ones, strong enough to push back on the range of illnesses and risks. It will take teamwork, learning, systems to make medication and supplies available and keep people accountable, and a lot of intelligent kindness from those seeking to support and help.

This new chapter of ETAT plus feels like the start of a special transformation. Let’s keep pushing!