Anna & Sam's Sierra Leone Surgical Fund

We are establishing an educational fund to support the rebuilding of surgical training and education in Sierra Leone, a cause close to our hearts and work.

Sierra Leone's surgical workforce has been decimated by a decade of civil war, extreme poverty and most recently the Ebola outbreak. Currently, there are less than ten public sector surgeons in Sierra Leone for a population of over 4 million people and almost all are nearing or past retirement age. Financial barriers and lack of in-country training opportunities are a major reason why more young doctors are not able to train as surgeons. Yet they are desperately needed: Only 7% of the population in Sierra Leone live within geographic reach of a facility capable of providing basic, life-saving surgical care. One in twenty women still die in childbirth, unable to access emergency obstetric surgical care. Without enough surgeons, common easily curable conditions such as appendicitis, obstructed labour, hernias and broken bones have become diseases with very high death rates in Sierra Leone. These conditions especially affect children, mothers and young adults, the very people needed to rebuild the country's social, political and economic systems.

The over-arching purpose of the surgical educational fund is to ensure that in the future Sierra Leoneons have the opportunity to access the basic, life-saving surgical care taken for granted in many parts of the world. The fund will provide financial support through small grant awards for aspiring surgeons, surgeons-in-training and junior surgical faculty to further their surgical education and training in the West African region. The fund will be administered in collaboration with the King's Sierra Leone Partnership, King's College London & King's Health Partners. Following their wedding, Anna and Sam will continue to maintain the fund through annual personal contributions.

UPDATE: Since we first established this page, two of Sierra Leone's surgeons have passed away from Ebola. Both were well known to Anna in her work in the country. One, Dr. Martin Salia, pictured above left, was Sierra Leone's only surgeon working in the public sector not nearing retirement, and the initial inspiration for establishing a fund aimed at junior surgeons. His impact in Sierra Leone in his short time working there was enormous. He will be deeply missed.