Power Crusade

Kathryn donating blood for hospital patient last summer


Hospital director, Mr. Kebba Badjie, next to drying bedsheets and washing buckets, with the hospital building in the background

A few days before leaving for the Gambia, my girls and I met the 20 year old daughter of a fellow Chester County Fund for Women and Girls’ Board member. Kathryn Cunningham, a pre-med student at U. Penn had spent the summer in the Gambia – so the unlikely connection was exciting to both the Cunningham’s and my family.

My girls and I were expecting to have a nice chat with an interesting local resident who could fill us in on details of her experience in West Africa. But Kathryn was on a mission. After volunteering at one of the four major hospitals in the country, she came home determined to find a way to supply the Sulayman Jungkung General Hospital with a continuous source of power.

The Problem:

While the hospital serves about 20,000 patients per year, has a total staff of about 200 people and was built just four years ago, it has a power supply just ten hours per day. Limited government funds pay for fuel to run two generators five hours during the daytime and five hours at night (maximum).

This means that surgeries can be performed two days per week. Refrigeration is intermittent, so live vaccines, blood and certain medicines can not be stored. Incubation for premature infants is unavailable. And there is no continuous running water. Without the running water supply, proper hygiene at all levels is compromised, from laundering bedsheets, towels and gowns of medical personnel, to cleaning used instruments. Also, the temperature of the village of Bwiam, about 60 miles south of Banjul (and a world away), is even hotter than where I’m staying near the coast, so inside temperatures can exceed 100 degrees. With 60-80 percent of the patients inflicted with fever from malaria, relief from the heat would mean so much, as would quick diagnosis, which is only possible during the hours there is power.

Power-Up Gambia

When Kathryn returned from her life-changing summer experience at the hospital – where she donated her own blood to keep a hemorrhaging woman alive after a stillbirth, helped deliver babies, and watched a 3.5 pound full-term infant die due to lack of an incubator – she knew she had to do something. In just a few months’ time she has built a fundraising campaign and organization called Power-Up Gambia to be able to supply enough solar panels (or other appropriate forms of power) for a continuous supply of power to the hospital. She’s recruited a capable and committed Board of Directors, a strong technical team and is talking to anyone and everyone with government, business or familial connections that could lead to helping raise an adequate level of funds (about $300,000).

She’s also gotten agreement from the Delaware Community Foundation to serve as the non-profit fiscal agent. Such community foundations usually exclusively fund local projects; Kathryn’s a local resident and gotten them to see the need for supporting something in Africa. This means that US donors can receive a tax deduction and that a professional, experienced organization will manage the financial end of the project. It takes creativity, profound commitment and chutzpah to build this sort of momentum.

Since I’ve arrived in the Gambia, I receive emails from Kathryn a few times a week, asking if I can check on a detail, or meet someone, or find someone who can provide the information, and I’m more than happy to do so. Along with her questions, she usually reports on some exciting development, like getting their website on-line: http://www.powerupgambia.org/; or holding a launch event where Gambia’s former US Ambassador, George Haley, brother of Alex Haley, traveled from Washington to attend; or receiving strong interest from the local Rotary Club or associates of a former US President for the project.

The Skeptics

I’ve encountered a number of people locally who meet this project skeptically. There are so many needs in the country, why focus on that? It’s common to have inadequate electricity. She’s just a 20 year-old girl, what can she do? This is a government-run hospital, how can they ensure the funds will be used appropriately, or why support a government institution? And, importantly, how can she be sure that the solar panels or other electricity source will be maintained over the years and properly used?

Local expat’s are the most skeptical. They’ve seen so much money go down the drain, and perhaps settled in Africa because they themselves were idealistic and young years ago, like Kathryn herself. Some of their concerns are legitimate, but Kathryn and her organization are aware of these concerns and trying to learn from the mistakes of the past. So, they are doing all they can to safeguard, without losing zeal and hope.

Next Steps

Having traveled to the hospital and talked to lots of people in the country about this, I’m convinced that this is a more than worthwhile effort. If the 24/7 power they aspire to will save even just 100 lives per year, it also will instill hope in residents of that region, and possibly create greater goodwill between Gambians and Americans.

Among other ancillary initiatives, they’re also starting a pen pals program, to link children in the Gambia and the US.

Browse around http://www.powerupgambia.org/. And if you would like to contribute, you can send a tax-deductible gift to the Delaware Community Foundation on-line, or mail it to PO Box 1636; Wilmington, DE 19899. On the memo line write Sulayman Jungkung General Hospital Project, or SJGH Project.

I’d love to know what you think about this…