The American Embassy in Freetown has become one of the newest supporters of the Welbodi Partnership and the Ola During Children’s Hospital.
Here are Embassy staff Lisa Baker and Laura Kustaborder, with ODCH matron Ruby Williams. They came to visit the hospital in April, to hand over the proceeds from a charity Mardi Gras ball the Embassy co-hosted in March to benefit the Welbodi Partnership and other charities. The ball raised more than six million Leones – about $2,000 – and half of this went to the Ola During Children’s Hospital.
Staff of the hospital were grateful for the Embassy’s support. ODCH Specialist-in-Charge Dr. MAS Jalloh (right, with Laura) thanked the Embassy representatives and asked them to remember the hospital in the future. He also assured them that any donations would be well-used.
Since then, the Embassy has begun helping in ways big and small. Ambassador June Carter Perry met with the Welbodi Partnership coordinators to find out more about the organization’s work. Lisa has agreed to help sell Sweet Salone cookbooks, the proceeds from which benefit the Welbodi Partnership, around the Embassy offices. And Laura, the Embassy’s health practitioner, arranged for a donation of new and used medical equipment to ODCH and the neighboring maternity hospital.
This equipment included a portable suction machine, boxes of oxygen masks and nasal cannulas, crutches, and other assorted supplies (see photo, right). She is also working to organize a blood drive for Embassy personnel to benefit the government’s blood services, which struggle with a constant shortage of blood.
We thank the Embassy staff for their support and look forward to a long partnership.
Will you be in New York on May 26, 2009? If so, please join us for an exciting event at the beautiful Fourth Universalist Society of New York. Nobel Prize-winning economist Dr. Joseph Stiglitz and Bloomberg News Editor-at-Large Mr. Robert Friedman take the stage, with a display of photographs by Czech photographer David Lacina for sale. You can check out details below, or find our event on Facebook. RSVP to welbodinyc@gmail.com or by phone at (917) 945-7879. Proceeds benefit the Welbodi Partnership and our work to support paediatric healthcare in Sierra Leone.
Many thanks to Welbodi Partnership supporters Hien Dao and Jimena Zuniga for organizing this event!
Invites you to an evening with
Dr. Joseph Stiglitz
Nobel Laureate and Columbia University Professor of Economics
Discussing "THE $12 TRILLION TRAP: The Economic Crisis, the Obama Administration's Response and Its Global Impact"
Moderated by Bloomberg News Editor-at-Large Mr. Robert Friedman
With an exhibition of photographs of Sierra Leone by Czech photographer David Lacina
May 26th 2009, 7-9 PM
Fourth Universalist Society of New York
160 Central Park West at 76th Street
Please RSVP at welbodinyc@gmail.com or by phone at (917) 945-7879
A minimum donation of $25 is requested. Exhibition photographs will be available for sale at $100. All cash donations and half of sale
proceeds will go towards supporting the Welbodi Partnership, a charity dedicated to improving the provision of pediatric care in Sierra Leone. The event is made possible through the kind support
of Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt, the Fourth Universalist Society of New York, Mrs. Anya Stiglitz, Mr. Robert Friedman and Mr. David
Lacina.
US donors can make tax-deductible donations to the Welbodi Partnership through FJC – A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds
By check: Please make checks payable to FJC and write “Welbodi Partnership” in the memo line of the check. Checks are accepted at our May 26 event or can be mailed directly to: FJC, 520 Eighth Ave., 20th Floor, New York, NY 10018.
By credit card: Please visit our website http://www.welbodipartnership.org/ to make a donation online.
By cash: Cash donations will be accepted at our May 26 event.
