Emma’s story
Nixon Memorial Hospital is a small hospital serving a population of about 35,000 in north-eastern Sierra Leone.
The hospital has its origins around 1930, when a nurse who was the wife of a British Methodist minister started treating the sick on the veranda of their bungalow. With funding from the methodist church the hosptial was developed with both expatriate and local staff. During the subsequent decades the Nixon Hospital progressed to become a centre of clinical excellence with a widely acclaimed nursing school and a renowned centre for Lassa Fever research.
It was devastated by Sierra Leone's civil war from 1991 to 2000, and efforts at reconstruction were further hampered by the Ebola epidemic in 2016.
Sierra Leone is one of the world's poorest countries, and with a national life expectancy of 53 years and an under-five mortality rate of 110 per 1000 live births, faces huge healthcare challenges.
In the face of this, the staff at Nixon hospital provide compassionate care, mustering scant resources to try to do the greatest good for the greatest number. I volunteered there from March - July 2024, and it was the most challenging job I have ever done. 'Friends of Nixon' is one of a number of partner organisations who look forward to continuing to support the hospital's development with a focus on community health work, training, education and infrastructure support.
I am raising money to support Friends of Nixon in their work, supporting the hospital and empowering local staff to care for their patients and community.
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