SIERRA LEONE: the toughest place in the world to be born

Years of fighting have left the country without sufficient hospitals, clinics or trained doctors and nurses. So since 2005, we've been working with the government to rebuild its healthcare system, ensuring that the poorest and most remote communities can get the essential healthcare they need.

Children whose homes are surrounded by dirty water face the constant threat of diarrhoea and cholera.

Recently, we've expanded our work into the slums of the country's capital, Freetown. We're training women like Adia, from Kroo Bay slum, to be Blue Flag volunteers. They hang a blue flag outside their home to show they're qualified to treat diarrhoea - a disease that still kills more than a million children every year through malnutrition and dehydration.

"We live in the community so people have close access to us," says Adia. "Before at night, people had nowhere to go for treatment. Now people can come and knock on our door at any time. They can be treated immediately, before they get even more sick."

Adia is clearly proud of her new role, saying, "It makes me feel happy to save a life in the community." This joy is shared by Adama, whose three-year-old son Mohammed was treated by Adia when he developed severe diarrhoea.

"Mohammed got sick when our home flooded this year," explains Adama. "I knew it was diarrhoea. It happened at a weekend, so the clinic was closed. But I took him to a Blue Flag volunteer who gave him oral rehydration salts. I knew where to find her because of the flag flying outside her home."

She adds, "My second child Mary got sick last year, before the Blue Flag volunteers were trained. By the time she was taken to the hospital, she was very bad ... it's good having the Blue Flag volunteers in the community, because we don't have to go so far to get treatment, and we don't have to pay."

Interviews conducted by Rachel Palmer, Regional Communications Editor.