Bo Children’s Hospital saving lives in Sierra Leone
WHEN Dr Nuli Lemoh first came to Sydney on a medical scholarship decades ago, he would not have envisaged that 50 years down the track, he would the founder of a pioneering children’s hospital in his native Sierra Leone.
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■ The Bo Children’s Hospital has been operating in Sierra Leone since 2012 and has treated more than 21,000 patients
■ It is only the second children’s hospital in the country
■ Mortality rate in Sierra Leone: 123 children in 1,000 die before they reach one year of age
■ Under-5 mortality rate: 192 per 1,000
■ Causes of deaths among children aged under 5 are: respiratory infections, malaria, diarrhoea, prematurity, birth asphyxia, neo-natal sepsis, measles and injuries
■ Sierra Leone has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world due to obstructed labour, haemorrhage, anaemia and toxaemia in pregnancy.
■ To help, visit: bochildrenshospital@bigpond.com or visit bochildrenshospital.org.au
WHEN Dr Nuli Lemoh first came to Sydney on a medical scholarship decades ago, he would not have envisaged that 50 years down the track, he would the founder of a pioneering children’s hospital in his native Sierra Leone.
Now retired, the Normanhurst local has dedicated the last five years creating and running the Bo Children’s Hospital, with generous support from the community and dedicated supporters.
Dr Lemoh recently received the Sydney University International House Alumni Award for Achievement due to his work with the Bo Children’s Hospital which is trying to reduce the alarming rate of child deaths in Sierra Leone.
One of the world’s poorest countries, Sierra Leone’s life expectancy is a mere 51 years while the chances of not surviving beyond 15 is a staggering 50 per cent.
Poverty, illiteracy, poor nutitrion and limited access to sanitation, health services and safe drinking water are among the main reasons for the high mortality rate in the African country which has been wracked by civil war in the past.
Dr Lemoh practised in both Sierra Leone and Australia and also with his wife Margaret, were founder residents of the International House at the University of Sydney.
Dr Lemoh worked in Sierra Leone for eight years after graduating in Sydney but was forced to return from Sierra Leone with his family when war broke out.
Dr Lemoh told News Corp in previous articles, that his parents were not educated and even didn’t want him to attend school.
“My parents were both illiterate and my father didn’t want me to go to school but I pushed hard and eventually was allowed to go,” he said.
“I wanted to study medicine and had to win scholarships to do so. Eventually I was invited to Sydney to study at university.”
On them hospital he founded, Dr Lemoh said: “It was my dream and I’m so lucky to have had people help me along the way to achieve it.”
Bo Children’s Hospital’s Cristina Carter said Dr Lemoh recognised the need for improved child health care services in the country of his birth and worked tirelessly over many years to establish a children’s hospital in Bo, the second city of Sierra Leone.
“Along the way he inspired International House Alumni as well as Rotarians in Sydney, Bo and the UK to work with him, raising the significant funding to achieve this dream,” Ms Carter, of Westleigh, said.
“Dr Nuli is an inspiration, his tireless enthusiasm for his vision of a children’s hospital which would save the lives of children by treating them and educating their families in the basics of preventing disease fired the imagination and stirred the generous feelings of everyone he met — friends, colleagues, alumni, Rotarians and strangers.”
Denise Curry, the joint CEO of the Bo Children’s Hospital Foundation with her husband Philip Huon, said they are constantly fundraising, said all donations go directly to run the hospital.
“The hospital has 15 plus beds but can overflow to 20 beds,” Ms Curry said.
“The staff vaccinate over 50 children a week and for those that cannot get to the hospital they send out nurses on a motorbike to far reaching villages to vaccinate the children.
“The hospital is staffed by medical professionals from the local community who take pride in their work and take full responsibility for running the hospital.
“ The hospital has now been in operation for 5 and half years and it has come to a point that maintenance is very much needed.
“The most pressing of issues is that the floor tiles are severely worn and are becoming a safety and health issue.”
Ms Curry said they need $4500 to replace the tiles and are looking for donations.