Deputy Statistician General Storms Karene District

The Deputy Statistician General of Stats SL, Lansana Kpewolo Kanneh, has visited Kamakwie, Karene District, to monitor the ongoing training of enumerators and supervisors for the Comprehensive Health and Epidemiological Surveillance System (CHESS) survey.

 

Mr. Kanneh left Freetown for Karene on Saturday, 9th March 2024, to witness the ongoing training of field staff who are going to participate in the CHESS survey.

CHESS is a new generation of population surveillance operations that hopes to provide timely delivery of high-quality data for disease-specific and pathogen-specific morbidity together with data for overall and cause-specific mortality.

Speaking at all the respective training halls he visited, the DSG expressed delight and satisfaction at the progress made so far regarding the facilitation and knowledge level of the participants. He interacted and related with the trainees and urged them to be attentive to detail. He furthered that the monitoring visit was to reaffirm Stats SL’s continuous commitment to producing credible and reliable data that positively impacts the national decision-making process(s).

He pleaded with the field staff to give their all to the training process in order to be fully equipped with the data collection skills, that will enable them to effectively utilize those skills to collect quality data that help achieve the study’s purpose.

In a similar vein, Mr. Kanneh met with the Karene District Council Chairman, Abdul Kandeh, the media, and other key stakeholders to clarify misinformation that “Stats SL imported many of the field staff from other parts of the country as opposed to using indigenes of the district.”

After clearly explaining how the requirement process of the field staff for the CHESS survey was done, the stakeholders were left with no option than to discard the false information and throw their full support for the entire survey process.

The DSG’s visit to Karene District not only created a promising effect on the survey process but also on the institution (Stats SL) as a whole. It is important to note that a similar training is simultaneously happening in Pujehun district, one of the other CHESS sites, which was also visited by the Stats SL Council Chairman, Moses Williams, alongside the Council Rep for the North- West Region, Alhaji Yillah. They similarly assessed progress made so far in the district regarding the training, and provided motivation for the trainees to give their all in delivering credible data for the impending CHESS survey.