Doctors’ assignment
The country of Sierra Leone has about 8.3 million inhabitants and currently has only about 211 trained doctors. Of these, only 4 are pediatricians and one pediatric surgeon .
44 percent of the population is under 15 years old. The average life expectancy is about 60 years.
Basic care, first aid, is usually provided by nurses in hospital wards in the villages.

During the trips to his home country, our club member Dr. M.Wright has seen the shortage time and again and developed a project to remedy it with his colleagues. In recent years, during their vacation, they have flown to Sierra Leone and operated on children with physical deformities. In addition to direct help, the focus was on the training of fellow doctors in his country of birth.

In close cooperation with the NGO “Lion for Lion” eligible children are selected. Doctors in Sierra Leone, including Dr. Frances Wurie, Dr. Nelli Bell, take over the preliminary examinations and coordinate the procedure with their German colleagues.

In recent years, more than 800 paediatric surgeries have been performed in over 11 operations in the operating rooms of Choithram and Connaught Hospital, some of them very complex. Due to the Ebola epepedemia, a break had to be taken in 2014-2016. Likewise, the Covid pandemic has prevented the operations for 2021 and 2022.

In the coming years, the doctors and colleagues will again use their holidays for medical assignments and the training of colleagues on site.