Our Latest News .....
Trustees’ Report for 2016-2017
This was the eighth year of operation of our charity. For Sierra Leone and its West African neighbours it has been a time of further recovery from the devastating impact of the Ebola Virus Disease epidemic of 2014. The Makeni Trust Fund has been pleased to support our partners in Sierra Leone at this time and we are grateful for the generous response of our funders.
Project Progress
University of
Running for water for the Maternity Ward …..
We are very grateful to David Paling and Teresa Kay who successfully completed the Sheffield Half Marathon on 10th April and raised a fantastic £631.88 in sponsorship money. Their goal was a well borehole for the new Maternity Ward at Holy Spirit Hospital, which has been requested by the hospital director, Dr Patrick Turay.
The Sheffield Half Marathon boasts one of the most scenic routes
More Water for Holy Spirit Hospital
Sierra Leone has very poor Maternal Health: in the UK there were 9 Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015, whereas in Sierra Leone there were 1360.
To address this problem our partner Holy Spirit Hospital in Makeni opened a new Maternity Ward towards the end of 2016. The Makeni Trust Fund funded developments to significantly improve the water supply for the hospital in 2010, and we
More Sheffield Masters Students will go to UNIMAK
Sheffield University crest
We were pleased to hear that two Sheffield University Masters students would like to do placements with the University of Makeni in June-July 2017. Helena has already been volunteering with work for UNIMAK in Sheffield. She would like to focus her research in Sierra Leone on local strategies to alleviate poverty. The other student, Eri, would like to focus on exploring the link between environmental
InterCare UK helps Holy Spirit Hospital
Our partner Holy Spirit Hospital suffered a disastrous fire at the end of last year. No-one was hurt, but as well as serious damage to buildings, the fire destroyed all of its drugs. As soon as we heard about it we sought help from other UK charities on our partners behalf. We are delighted that InterCare (http://intercare.org.uk/), who specialise in providing
Award for one of our Partners in Makeni
Sr Mary Sweeney
Makeni Trustees congratulate Sr. Mary Sweeney, the Director of St Joseph’s School for the Hearing Impaired, Makeni. Sr Mary, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, received a Presidential Distinguished Service Award from President of Ireland on 8 December for her role in co-ordinating the response to the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone. Speaking afterwards Sr. Mary said: “This
Happy Patients of the Diabetes Clinic
Happy people helped by Makeni Trust Fund
We support the work of Dr Veronica Sawicki who has set up a clinic at Holy Spirit Hospital for people with diabetes. Makeni Trust Fund helps by funding the purchase of blood glucose strips. Veronica recently sent us this message:
“I just wanted to post a couple of photos of some of our patients who are alive in part, as a result of your amazing support. Big smiles all round !”
Sheffield University ties with University of Makeni strengthened
Sheffield University links with the University of Makeni (UNIMAK) are being strengthened in three ways:
1. Sheffield University has launched a 2-3 year programme of work that seeks to identify and mobilise UNIMAK alumni to support the future development of the University. The key elements of the Alumni Outreach Project are:
> To understand how alumni engagement supports the development of a