By Sallieu S. Kanu
Freetown, Sierra Leone — July 14, 2026: The Freetown City Council (FCC), in partnership with HB Ltd, the Ministry of Health’s Directorate of Environmental Health and the District Health Management Team, has launched a two-day training programme to strengthen frontline healthcare workers’ capacity to respond to heat-related illnesses.
The training, which began on July 14, brought together 35 healthcare professionals as part of the C40 Cities-supported project Enhancing Heat-Health in Freetown. The initiative aims to improve community resilience against the growing health impacts of extreme heat driven by climate change.
Building Heat-Health Preparedness
Participants are being trained to:recognise and treat heat illnesses such as heat exhaustion, dehydration and heat stroke; raise public awareness of heat-health risks; prepare for extreme heat events through early warning systems; and strengthen data collection on heat-related illnesses.
Key deliverables of the wider project include establishing a Heat Health Task Force, training 500 healthcare workers, conducting a baseline assessment of heat-health risks, developing communication tools and response protocols, and rolling out a citywide awareness campaign.
Speaking at the opening, Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, OBE, described extreme heat as “the deadliest climate-related threat facing communities today.” She outlined two priorities for the city’s response:
- Reducing urban temperatures through nature-based solutions such as tree planting.
- Supporting vulnerable populations that are most at risk from heat exposure.
Extreme heat is costing Freetown billions in economic losses annually, with women in open-air markets among the hardest hit. To mitigate these impacts, FCC has introduced interventions including:
- Market Shade Cover Project benefiting over 2,300 women vendors.
- Tree planting initiatives to cool urban spaces.
- Improved access to safe drinking water for informal workers.
- Construction of the Hannah-Benjamin Coker Street Heat Pavilion, combining ecological and structural cooling features.
Freetown adopted its first Heat Action Plan in 2024 and appointed Africa’s first Chief Heat Officer to coordinate city-level responses. Health officials, including Dr Sylvia Fasululu and Dr Doris Bah, praised the training initiative, stressing the importance of embedding heat-health into routine healthcare delivery and investing in research on climate-related health impacts.
Training sessions cover clinical management of heat illnesses, identifying vulnerable groups, understanding heat trends in Freetown, community engagement, and strengthening emergency response capacity at health facilities.