|
|
Funds pay for hospital build
 |
|
Women from Kambia town
|
After four years of planning and
fundraising by Cheltenham campaigners, work has finally
begun to build a new hospital in Kambia, Sierra Leone.
When the hospital was destroyed during the civil war in
1999, the Gloucestershire group which had provided
equipment, staff and training, pledged to build a new one.
It launched an appeal to raise the £1 million required.
Kambia Hospital Appeal members, who returned last week
from a visit to the West African country to see building
begin, are ecstatic.
Spokesman James Dowling said: "It's really not going
to be very far away now. When the hospital wasn't there,
there was just one doctor for a population of 300,000.
Women who needed emergency caesareans have just been
dying.
''Malaria affects lots of people and there's lots of
malnutrition. People couldn't get the medical assistance
they needed."
The new hospital will have male, female and paediatric
wards, an under-fives building, a pharmacy, operating
theatre, X-ray facilities, staff quarters and a laboratory
for testing for HIV and other infections.
The cost of the project has been boosted by an EC grant of
£600,000.
Mr Dowling said: "Everyone we met knew about
Cheltenham. They said they wanted us to be involved in
their future and we told them we were still their friends
and would be for the foreseeable future."
The Kambia Hospital Appeal is continuing to raise funds
for equipment for the new facility.
To make a donation or to buy Christmas cards supporting
the cause, call: 01242 242004.
December 2003
|
©
Gloucestershire Echo. |
