Rita Allen, Project Liaison Officer for the BIG Project gave us an update on progress with this project, set up in 2011, in which SIGBI have been working in partnership with MCAI (Maternal and Childhealth Advocacy International).
Rita explained that since renaming this project last year to the more user friendly acronym, the ‘BIG Project’, it had helped clubs to engage with it better and the Day of Action in July had been very popular, raising £18,444.
Rita informed us that 95% of the money raised is used directly in The Gambia by our partners, MCAI, and to date the following improvements have been made:
- The new 10 bed labour ward extension in the Brikama Hospital has been completed and equipped, providing a safe environment for women to give birth.
- SI Winchester have supplied an ultrasound scanner in memory of a member, Margaret Lovell, and this has now been installed.
- Refurbishment of the Maternity Unit at Essau Hospital, separated from Brikama by a 7 mile estuary, has been completed.
- There are plans to fund another volunteer paediatrician to work in The Gambia.
To date £61,739.37 has been raised. There is still much work to be done and it is planned to hold another DAY OF ACTION on 19 July 2014.
Report by Anne MacDonald – Cheshire, North Wales & the Wirral Region