Outreach to the Kayima Clinic in Sierra Leone

Kayima is a remote community of 2,000 people in the far north-east of Sierra Leone, one of the world's poorest countries situated in West Africa. Seventy percent of the country’s 6.5 million people live below the national poverty line of US$2 per day, and 26% are living in extreme poverty. Most families in Kayima are engaged in farming, growing rice (the staple food) and various fruit and vegetable crops to feed the household

Health care among remote communities in Sierra Leone is generally in a very poor state. Kayima's small clinic, which services about 100,000 people in the surrounding villages, has only very basic resources, two nurses and very few medicines and medical supplies. Improving health care in such communities must be given top priority, but in such a poor country, remote communities are often badly neglected.

Professor Tony Binns, a Fellow of St Margaret’s College and the Ron Lister Chair of Geography at the University of Otago has a long and special relationship with the people of Kayima dating back to 1974 when he lived there for almost a year while undertaking field research for his PhD. Seeing the need, St Margaret's College would like to raise funds to assist the Clinic in purchasing essential medicines and medical supplies.

St Margaret's College is a residential college affiliated to the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. The College, which accommodates 224 university students, has a strong community service ethic and supports at least one international cause each year. While College Members themselves will be participating in this fundraising venture for the Kayima Clinic, donations from members of the public are very welcome.