Sierra Leone is a country of 7.5m people where more than 70% live below the poverty line. Life expectancy is less than 49 years and the under 5 mortality rate is 87%. Sierra Leone was hit badly with a 10-year civil war and hit again with the recent Ebola Outbreak in 2014, and now like the rest of the world, it is suffering with Covid-19. The rainy season is about to start and with that comes a host of other diseases to make matters worse: malaria, dengue and Lassa fever to name but a few.

The Government of Sierra Leone announced a state of emergency on 25th of March, reducing its funding of local non-government organisations like the Swiss-Sierra Leone Development Foundation which supports the Magbenteh Community Hospital in rural Makeni. This Hospital offers free healthcare to children under 5 and pregnant women, helping around 8000 children and 4000 pregnant women every year. In order to continue giving this life saving service the hospital spends around £2,000 on medical materials and cleaning items like gloves, aprons, hand sanitizer and floor disinfectant.

In 2016, after working for a year in Sierra Leone on the Ebola Outbreak, I volunteered in the laboratory of the Magbenteh Hospital and saw with my own eyes the amazing job this Foundation does. Now they need us more than ever. For this reason, I would like to try and raise money to help keep the paediatric and pregnant women wards open during the Covid19 crisis.

I will be leading every Saturday in June 75min of online yoga classes at Soul Fire Studios and you are welcome to join me. Please book in through their website, Soul Fire Studios, workshops.

To found out more about the Magbenteh Hospital and the Swiss-Sierra Leone Development Foundation please visit: http://ssldf.org/ you can find them on Facebook and Instagram as well.