Our 10th Anniversary celebrations raised an incredible total of £20,000 from you all towards our operating kit appeal. This money has now been matched by a very generous donation of £11,500 from Greyfriars Church in Reading, and £20,000 from ECHO International Health Services Trust. Thank you all so much!! £40,000 of this will be used to equip two operating theatres (Masiki Hospital, Butembo and the second operating room in the Theatre of St Matthieu, Bukavu), and the rest will go towards building a post-operative ward for St Matthieu Hospital in Bukavu and emergency health needs.
£30,000 of this has already been paid to Medaid who have purchased most of the equipment and are nearly ready to fly it to Uganda from where it will be trucked across the border to Bukavu and Butembo.
Just one problem: the border between Uganda and Congo is closed. With the Covid-19 pandemic, both countries have taken necessary measures to try to reduce transmission. Some trucks with supplies are making it across the border but we just heard that two Uganda truckers were tested positive for Covid-19 at the border, so this may limit access even more. But in the big scheme of things this may just cause a slight delay and Medaid will send the load the minute they know they can get it into Congo.
