Four Scholars, One Opportunity: EPN Awards Pharmacy Diplomas to CHAL Member Facility Staff
In January 2023, the Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network (EPN) announced the availability of a fully funded scholarship for healthcare staff working in the pharmacies of church hospitals and health facilities — an opportunity to undertake a three-year pharmacy diploma programme and earn a qualification recognised in their home country. For CHAL, this represented exactly the kind of investment in human capital that its member facilities in rural Liberia needed most: the chance to place a formally trained pharmacist in facilities that had long operated with untrained dispensing staff, in counties where the nearest qualified pharmacist could be hours away.
CHAL responded with purpose. Eight applicants from five member health facilities were identified, assessed, and submitted to EPN for review — each meeting the programme’s criteria of serving a facility with 50 or more beds, operating in a rural or hard-to-reach area, and holding the endorsement of their hospital management. From those eight, four candidates were selected to receive the scholarship: Patricia L. Murphy from Phebe Hospital, Davidson T. Bullet from Foya Borma Hospital, Ellenor K. Kamara from Bolahun Health Center, and Oretha W. Kollie from Curran Hospital. Each of these facilities sits in a county where pharmaceutical expertise is scarce and the consequences of medication errors or supply mismanagement are borne directly by patients with no alternative care options.
The scholarship is more than a professional milestone for the four beneficiaries — it is a structural investment in the facilities they serve and the communities those facilities exist to protect. When a trained pharmacist manages a dispensary, medicines are stored correctly, dispensed accurately, and replenished responsibly. Drug wastage falls. Patient safety improves. CHAL is proud to have facilitated this opportunity and looks forward to welcoming all four scholars back to their facilities as qualified pharmaceutical professionals, equipped to raise the standard of care for every patient who walks through their doors.
