Care Circle Surulere clinic completes renovations and staffing ahead of launch

Over the past two weeks, we completed all renovations at Care Circle Surulere, including painting, branding, blind installation, and final equipment purchases. We also welcomed two incredible nurses, Benedeth and Sylvia. We also finalized plans for the clinic’s official launch: a large community outreach event on September 14, followed by a medical outreach and ribbon-cutting on September 20. Full-time operations will begin shortly after.

Activities:

• Completed painting and added branding to the reception area

• Purchased and installed blinds throughout the clinic

• Acquired and organized remaining equipment (BP machines, weighing scales, mattresses, laptop, phone)

• Hired and confirmed two nurses: Lead Nurse Benedeth (25+ years experience) and Nurse Sylvia (10+ years)

• Conducted deep cleaning and fumigation of the clinic

• Finalized launch plans: Sept 14 community parade, Sept 20 medical outreach and ribbon cutting, followed by weekday clinic operations

Challenges:

Operations ran smoothly overall. The only delay was finalizing staff interviews and ensuring full buy-in from Surulere stakeholders. To support community ownership, our partners and local residents were deeply involved in hiring decisions. With a high volume of applications and coordination across groups, the process took longer than expected but we’re now fully staffed with two excellent registered nurses.

For future hiring, we’re exploring affordable applicant tracking systems and calendar tools to streamline the process.

Meet Nurse Benedeth, our lead at Care Circle. She brings 25+ years of experience, including 16 years as a matron in a Lagos government hospital. She’s kind, highly skilled, and a passionate advocate for health equity. She’ll be working alongside Nurse Sylvia, who has over 9 years of experience. Both nurses were selected from a pool of over 50 candidates and vetted by the AHA, community partners, and the Surulere clinic committee.

Care Circle’s services will be supported by our network of volunteer physicians.

Next steps:

Staff orientation begins next week. Nurses Benedeth and Sylvia will undergo a five-day immersion at our Safe City and Gbagada clinics to train in operations, EMR tools, and best practices, ensuring they’re fully prepared for day one.

Finances (last 3 weeks):

We’ve now used about 94% of Phase 1 funding. The remaining 6% will go toward clinic decor and initial medication procurement in the coming week.