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The Bush Hospital Foundation is a Jersey Island based non-government organization incorporated by an Act of the Royal Court of Jersey which is dedicated to identifying and funding Primary Health Care projects in Third World Countries. The areas so targeted are usually remote rural communities with little or no provision for medical care and where transportation is an added difficulty.
Since the organization was established in 1990 it has sent five (currently - ten) ambulances, which double as mobile health clinics, to projects in Rwanda, Kenya and Zambia. The organization has also funded the equipping of two Bush Hospitals, one in South West Kenya and one in Rwanda. It has also funded the building or re-building of two rural health centres. All projects are assessed and audited by the Medical Director of the Bush Hospital Foundation, Michael Marks, MD.
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The Bush Hospital Foundation was born in 1989 out of the same conversation that resulted in the creation of MediShare International - a conversation by radio among three Amateur Radio Operators, Mr. Ken Kirk-Bayley, then GJ0KKB, Jersey Island, and Mr. Kirby Palmer, 9X5KP, at the Mugenero Hospital in Rwanda, and Dr. Robert C. Smithwick, W6CS, of Los Altos Hills, CA.
Kirby volunteered the information that the hospital's only autoclave (sterilizer) had broken down and no further operations were possible at this hospital serving a community of over 250,000 people.
The unit, twenty-three years old, of US manufacture could no longer be hermetically sealed as the parts had perished. Using short-wave radio Ken Kirk-Bayley contacted an engineer in Chicago (William Stange, W9DDP) who took the dimensions over the airwaves. The parts were purchased from Autoclave and shipped out to Rwanda and within three weeks operations were being performed again. The hospital administrator was asked if any other problems existed upon which help could be given - a foolish question to ask a hospital in Africa. News was passed via radio that a local youth desperately required cardiac surgery to repair a cardiac defect ('Hole in the Heart').
No one in the country had the requisite skills nor were there funds available to send the patient out of the country. With the help of local press and radio, friends, schools and the local population of the Island of Jersey, the money was raised in two weeks to bring the boy to France.
After surgery and convalescence for his heart repair, young Samson returned home, now a healthy young man.
During the course of fund raising, Ken Kirk-Bayley heard of Dr. Michael Marks and a previous visit he had made to Rwanda, the two met and decided on a partnership to carry on seeking aid for Mugonero Hospital.
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A turbocharged diesel Land Rover-prior to its conversion to a mobile clinic by BHF-MediShare International. It is now in use in Rwanda, Kenya and Zaire. |
A further assistance from Dr. Robert C. ('Smitty') Smithwick of Los Altos Hills, California, who offered his help by way of short-wave radio. Smitty, a long time member of MARCO ( US based Medical Amateur Radio Council,) offered assistance to find services we could use, transportation and equipment that might be available. 'Smitty' is now a Trustee and our representative in North America.
Since the BHF was established nearly ten years ago, it has sent eight Land Rover ambulances, which double as mobile health clinics, to projects in Rwanda (especially in the refugee camps of Zaire following the terrible civil wars of 1997), Kenya and Zambia. The organization has also funded the equipping of two Bush Hospitals, one in South West Kenya and one in Rwanda. It has also funded the building or re-building of two rural health Centres.
The Bush Hospital Foundation recently negotiated a landmark agreement with Direct Relief International, an eminent American medical aid agency, which recently provided over $80,000 worth of medical equipment for one of the BHF's current projects in Africa. The only cost to the organization is the administrative and shipping costs to that particular country.
| Mr. Ken Kirk-Bayley, GJ0KKB, was a co-recipient, along with Dr. Robert C.
Smithwick, W6CS, of 'The International Humanitarian of the Year Award,
1996', presented by the prestigious national organization, the American
Radio Relay League (ARRL) of Newington, CT, USA. (Excerpted from the 1997-98 Annual Report of the BHF to the MARCO Board of Trustees) |
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For more information about the MediShare International Program,
see QST, February 1997, pages 41-43.
Robert C. Smithwick, DDS (W6CS)
Los Altos Hills, California