President
Kabbah Re-launches Baptist Eye Hospital
By Yusuf Alghali
SEPTEMBER
16TH 2003:The Baptist Eye Hospital in
Lunsar, Port Loko district, a facility that
used to serve patients from across the nation
as well as the West African sub-region, has
been officially re-launched today by President
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, following an extensive
rehabilitation project assisted by the British
Department for International Development (DFID).
The
hospital originally came into being in 1978,
following a plea made some three years earlier
by the then President of the Baptist Convention
Sierra Leone, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Saidu Mans,
and directed to the Christophel Blinden Mission
(CBM) in Germany, on behalf of the Blind School
in Freetown. The German mission accepted the
request with a view to supporting patients
that were not only totally blind, but who
also had the symptoms of blindness. Thereafter,
according to Rev. Dr. Saidu Mans, a project
proposal for an eye hospital was developed
and submitted to CBM through the European
Baptist Mission (EBM), which also formed the
basis for the establishment of the Baptist
Eye Hospital Lunsar (BEHL).
Prior
to the war, the eye hospital offered its much-needed
services through the mobile clinic unit operations,
as patients from Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Liberia
streamed into the hospital for ophthalmic treatment.
The establishment also had a training center
for ophthalmic surgeons and nurses from West
Africa and other parts of the continent.
However,
the Baptist Eye Hospital suffered severe destruction
during the civil war like many other social
infrastructures across the nation. It was vandalized
and looted, while equipment, which could not
be carried away, were willfully damaged beyond
repairs. The entire hospital staff was displaced
and a skeletal and temporary eye hospital was
re-located to Lungi for three years.
Before
re-launching the hospital, President Kabbah
assured the large crowd of people assembled
both in and outside the hospital that "by
the grace of God, we shall resolve all our war-related
problems in Sierra Leone". He said it was
natural for the human eyes to start to deteriorate
after a forty year period, noting that it was
thus a very good thing to have an institution
like the Baptist Eye Hospital and their sponsors
providing relevant clinical services to all
and sundry.
He
said the best way Sierra Leoneans could thank
the service providers was to preserve and maintain
the structure at all times, while calling on
both the Ministry of Health and the National
Commission for Social Action (NaCSA) to step
in and assist the newly-rehabilitated hospital
with their modest requests for a vehicle and
other professional staff.
The
President, who also disclosed that the European
Union would soon rehabilitate the Mabesseneh
Hospital and other facilities, said government
and its development partners were ready to make
life more comfortable for all "so as to
allow us concentrate on other things like growing
enough food and building substantial wealth
for the country.
Continuing,
President Kabbah paid tributes to Rev. Dr. Joseph
Mans, an individual he referred to as one of
the rare breed of Sierra Leonean role models
the young generation must try to emulate. He
also described Reverend Mans as a visionary
who had lived a good life, noting that he possessed
all the good qualities that make Sierra Leoneans
proud.
The
President went on to commend the exemplary demonstration
of religious tolerance seen during the re-launching
ceremony, as both Muslims and Christians shared
prayers together as one loving family.
Other
speakers at the event included the newly accredited
British High Commissioner to Freetown, Dr. John
Mitchener, the DFID Programme Manager and the
Paramount Chief of Marampa Masimera Chiefdom,
Bai Koblo Queen, who gave the vote of thanks.
-End-
