Commentary

Freetown will host a first-of-its-kind gathering on Friday, 25 July 2025, when Youterus Health unveils the Uterine Health Fund (UHF) at New Brookfields Hotel, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., a launch billed as "a new era for uterine and reproductive health in Africa."

The fund promises blended financing for diagnosis, treatment and research, and its backers are calling the event a turning-point for women's health systems across the continent.

"We legislate budgets for maternal care every year, yet the uterus is still the blind spot of public policy," says Hon. Mariama Zombo, who will open the programme with a personal reflection on the hidden costs of uterine neglect.

Clinician Dr. Francess Wurie plans to underline that point with hospital-floor evidence: "Delayed fibroid diagnoses steal livelihoods long before they take lives; it's time the system caught up."

Data will be another focal theme. "We can't fix what we don't count," warns Prof. Charles Senessie, urging deeper investment in longitudinal research to map the true burden of uterine disease.

The launch will also showcase private-sector muscle: tech entrepreneur David Tamba Abdulai Kpakima will argue that “mobile imaging and micro-insurance can drop access barriers overnight," while UHF architect Julie Otieno gives a walk-through of the fund's blended-finance model.

Founder Fatou Wurie says the line-up was designed to move the conversation “from hush to headline." The day will weave policy, clinical science, grassroots advocacy and culture-complete with a musical interlude by Lala Sidibe—into what UN Resident Coordinator Seraphine Wakana calls "a blueprint for meeting SDG 3 and SDG 5 in one stroke."

Although attendance is open to limited health professionals, investors and civil-society groups, and organisers have expressed hope that the dialogue would echo far beyond the ballroom.

"If we anchor uterine health at the centre of national planning," Ms Wurie insists, "we shift the story of African women from pain to power."