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Hospital's saving so
many lives in Kambia
The African hospital built on the
foundations of Cheltenham charity is having a dramatic
effect in war-torn Sierra Leone.
The Kambia Hospital has opened its doors after five years
of fundraising by Gloucestershire campaigners. Lives are
being saved, its reputation is spreading and people are
queuing up for treatment.
James Dowling, spokesman for the Cheltenham-based Kambia
Hospital Appeal which raised £273,000 towards the
state-of-the-art facility, said: "On our last visit,
there was a building site. Now there's a new hospital full
of patients.
"The health system in Sierre Leone was decimated by
the civil war and people are making the most of the
excellent facilities here.
"The hospital already has such a good name for
itself, people are not only coming from all over Kambia
but from across the border of neighbouring Guinea.
"There are so many patients, in fact, the hospital
kitchen has been turned into a makeshift maternity ward.
"We spoke to the Paramount Chief of Kambia and he
thanked the people of Cheltenham for their continued
support throughout desperate times in their country.
"He said everyone in Kambia appreciated the help from
people in Cheltenham and such support was helping Sierra
Leone to recover."
Cheltenham General Hospital surgeon Richard Kerr-Wilson,
who spearheaded the campaign to build a new hospital for
the West African region after its former one was destroyed
in 1999, has recently returned from a week's visit.
Each day he performed life-changing operations on women
made incontinent by childbirth.
A common problem in Kambia, which is one of the world's
poorest countries, it leads to many sufferers being
abandoned by their families and left to starve.
News of his arrival spread fast and he arrived on his
first day to find dozens of people queuing for treatment.
Mr Kerr-Wilson said: "The hospital is making a
dramatic difference. It's well-equipped, clean and
efficiently run and has totally transformed things.
"Without it, none of those women would have had that
operation. They would probably have been kicked out of
their house."
The Kambia Hospital Appeal will remain active, fundraising
to provide equipment and training for staff at the new
building and to improve maternity care throughout the
region.
Links between Cheltenham and Kambia were formed in 1992
when a charity worker from Kambia visited friends here and
asked for help with the former hospital.
When civil war rebels destroyed the building, campaigners
pledged to raise £1 million for a new one.
They got a boost when the European Union stepped in with a
massive grant.
For more information, contact www.kambiahospital.org.uk
January 2005
Gloucestershire Echo
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