Dr Koroma - Appeal for Assistance

Our wonderful Dr Koroma of the Adventist Hospital at Waterloo has been accepted to study for a diploma in Reproductive Health in Developing Countries at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK.

Dr Koroma is appealing for help with the tuition fees and travel costs.

If anyone feels they are able to help Dr Koroma financially with this please let me know and I will put you in direct contact with the Doctor. If you want more information about the costs involved please contact me and I'll provide the breakdown of what is needed. He is hoping to be able to take up the offer later this year.

If Doctor Koroma is able to attend this diploma programme it will be a huge benefit to the hospital and the community he works in.

Once the Ebola crisis is over there are plans that the new building at the hospital will be utilised as a maternity ward, the knowledge that Dr Koroma would gain in the programme would be invaluable to saving the lives of many women and their babies.

Already many pregnant women chose to go to Dr Koroma rather than the nearby maternity hospital because his reputation is so good.

Please, if you are able, consider supporting the Doctor so that he may take up the offer to study at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

There's A Man In My Boot!

So, a funny thing happened to me on the way home from the office,

 

I stopped off at Shell Junction to pick up a couple of bundles of water, the sellers seemed even more desperate than usual crowding around the car, vying for attention, trying to be the one I chose to buy water from.

 

I bought from the first person to approach the car and as he was loading the water into the car one of the other vendors jumped into the boot of my car and said he wasn't getting out unless I bought water from him too.......well this was a selling approach I'd not come across before!!

 

I was a bit shocked and bemused at first, then I saw the funny side of it - luckily by the time I finished laughing my unwanted passenger decided it was time to move along and hopped out and wandered off in search of another customer!!

 

I'm still chuckling about it now......and still can't quite believe the cheek of the man - he sat there peering at me between the headrests as if he had every right to be there!!

I'm So Blessed

I'm sitting in the classroom that I'm going to be using as an office for the next few weeks as we lead up to the schools reopening and I've just been reflecting on how blessed I am to be able to be here.

 

Two of our sponsored boys Mohamed and Abu are here keeping me company and John and Sailu who live here are also here. The five of us shared a meal of luncheon meat and bread and now Mohamed is having a little snooze.

 

It's very peaceful here today, just the five of us. I know that when word gets around about where I am basing myself it's going to get a lot busier and a lot more noisy......and I will enjoy that too when it does......but for now it's nice to enjoy a little quiet time with just a few kids.

 Abu is one of the reasons that I started off the sponsorship scheme - I started paying his fees along with 3 other boys back in 2008, then I kept adding more and more students, when I got to 11 students  I realised I needed help and that was how the idea for the sponsorship scheme was spawned. The original 4 boys are all still in the sponsorship scheme and have sponsors.

Abu will start in Junior Secondary School when the schools reopen - he did well in his National Primary School examination last year so is able to go to the school that he wants to attend.

 

 

I am so fortunate to have been able to watch Abu and so many of out other students grow up and absolutely blessed to have been able to share so much of their childhood with them......and to continue to do so. They have definitely enriched my life and I can't imagine life without them in it.

A Day of Two Halves

Today has been an interesting day.......

 

The First Half

This morning I was invited to meet some UK medics that have been working in Sierra Leone and talk about why I'm here and what I do here. I was SO nervous, but I think it went well. They were all really nice and a few people were interested in sponsoring students - which is fantastic!!

 

People tell me that I'm brave to come here, but really my risk is minimal and I feel I have to be here with the people that I've grown to love over the years.

The people I met today are amazing, they have chosen to come here, to help rid us of this sickness, possibly putting themselves at risk, to help perfect strangers.......it restored my faith in humanity to meet people so selfless.

 

After my short talk we all had lunch and I had some time to chat and catch up with an old friend that I'd not seen since 2008!!

 

I'm going to help them by distributing aid that they have collected but were unable to share out.

 

The Second Half

This afternoon was a totally different kettle of fish........I went to the house of Alhaji the boy who fell in boiling water over the weekend (click here to see the post about him). The doctor who had promised to visit did come after I'd left yesterday, and was due to return again this morning, but still hadn't arrived by 3pm.

 

Alhaji was pretty much the same as yesterday, still in an enormous amount of pain - but even so, when I arrived  he stood up to say "hello aunty". He wasn't dressed today, but rather had a sheet draped over his shoulders which I think is probably better for him.

 

I decided that it would be better if I went to the hospital first without the boy to see if there was a chance of admitting him, rather than put him through the pain of the journey unnecessarily. When I got to the hospital they told me that it was now an Ebola holding centre. I carried on into town to the big government hospital and found the children's ward - they told me that if we took him there they might be able to admit him.

 

I've also called Doctor Koroma to ask him to advise me what he thinks will be best for the boy - hopefully we'll be able to talk in the morning.

 

I'm hoping that tomorrow we'll be able to either get Alhaji admitted to hospital or work out a way to ensure he gets the treatment he needs at home.

 

On a side note......some things I don't think I'll ever get used to, nor do I want to - when I drove past the mortuary today there was a hearse with a team of people in full PPE unloading a body.........Ebola may be on the wane, but it's still very much here.

Boiling Water

One of our sponsored boys had an accident yesterday, he was visiting his friends and he slipped onto a pan of boiling water. I was visiting near where he lives today and some of the other children came to tell me.

His burns are really bad - his Mum took him to the hospital yesterday and they dressed the burns, but they couldn't admit him as the hospital isn't taking admissions due to Ebola. A doctor had said he would visit them at home today to check on the burns, but up until 4pm he still hadn't arrived and the family can't get through to him on the phone.

 

I'll talk to his Mum tomorrow and if they still haven't been able to contact the doctor I'll take him to the children's hospital and try to get him admitted there.....I think the children's hospital has reopened.

 

I'm worried that if we can't get him admitted to hospital that the burns will become infected - as you can see gauze has been put over the burns but they will get dirty so easily. It's going to cause so much pain to get that gauze off!!

The majority of the burns are on his back, but he also has them on his heads, arms, and bottom.

Please pray that we will be able to get treatment for him, and also that he will heal and be relieved of the enormous pain he is in.