Winchester Hospital Hosts Delegation from Sierra Leone, West Africa

Winchester, Mass. – Although he has lived in the U.S. for 19 years, Ishmeal Kallon of Lowell has never forgotten his native homeland of Kenema, Sierra Leone in West Africa. Little by little, he began opening up to co-worker Jim McGrath in Winchester Hospital’s Information Systems department about the horrors of the 10-year civil war which he fled. The civil war which claimed the lives of his father, four uncles, eight cousins and countless friends.
 
McGrath, a senior programmer at Winchester Hospital, knew that his department participated in an annual holiday donation. In December 2009, he suggested to Information Systems Manager Peggy Ames that a worthy cause would be the Sierra Leone Kenema District Development Mission (SLKDDM). Based in Washington, D.C., the non-profit organization is dedicated to building an effective infrastructure to stimulate economic growth and innovation in the region.
 
Ames quickly approved the donation and alerted Marlene Williamson, director of inpatient nursing services at Winchester Hospital, to the opportunity to assist the SLKDDM on a larger scale. Williamson agreed on a second donation from the hospital’s Magnet Nurses’ Charitable Fund to provide critical assistance to the hospital in Kenema.
 
While the philanthropic acts were simply a continuing example of Winchester nurses helping other nurses, the recipients in Kenema felt differently. On Monday, April 5, Winchester Hospital hosted a visit from Kenema Chief Brima Kargbo, who also serves as mayor of the Kenema City Council; Mustapha Mansaray, president of SLKDDM; John Leigh, former Sierra Leone ambassador to the United States; and other members of their respective delegations.
 
“I am so proud to receive this gift from Winchester Hospital that it was a fitting gesture for me to come here with blessings and to say thank you,” Chief Kargbo told a gathering of hospital administrators, nurses and staff members.
 
According to Mansaray, the donations will assist in the effort to rebuild the war-ravaged hospital in Kenema. In addition to providing desperately needed medical supplies and resources for a new surgical wing, a priority is installing refrigeration in the morgue. Currently, bodies must be driven 185 miles each way to a morgue in the nation’s capital of Freetown while funeral arrangements are coordinated.
 
“The Magnet Nurses’ Charitable Fund was a dream I had four years ago, and seeing the faces of those we have helped made that dream a fantasy come true,” Williamson said. “This event brought full circle all we have tried to accomplish in that time. It was a moment of a lifetime for me.”
 
Kallon, who worked for Winchester Hospital as a courier while studying computers for two years until he became a computer help desk coordinator in December 1999, is appreciative but not surprised by the hospital’s generosity toward his homeland. Physicians have long given him medicine and supplies to send to Kenema. When the home he shares with his wife and children was badly damaged by fire in 2005, colleagues responded with more clothing, furniture and housewares than they could use.
 
“There is so much poverty and suffering in my country. Everything is needed, but I never expected Winchester Hospital to get so involved. It’s overwhelming,” said Kallon, noting that Kenema’s infrastructure is especially strained due to overcrowding following the war, which was fought from 1991 to 2000. “For me, this is not a job. These are not co-workers. Winchester Hospital is an extension of my family.”
 
Ames said the feeling is mutual. Once she heard Kallon’s story, there was no question in her mind regarding the right thing to do. “When you hear what his family and friends have gone through,” she said, “how can you not help?”
 
For more information about the Sierra Leone Kenema District Development Mission, visit www.kenemadistrict.org.
 
About Winchester Hospital
Winchester Hospital is the first community hospital in Massachusetts to earn Magnet recognition, the American Nurses Association’s highest honor for nursing excellence. As the northwest suburban Boston area’s leading provider of comprehensive health care services, the 229-bed facility provides care in general, bariatric and vascular surgery, orthopedics, pediatrics, cardiology, pulmonary medicine, oncology, gastroenterology, rehabilitation, radiation oncology, pain management, obstetrics/gynecology and a Level IIB Special Care Nursery. Winchester Hospital has clinical affiliations with several nationally recognized hospitals in the region, including Children’s Hospital Boston, Tufts Medical Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. To learn more, visit www.winchesterhospital.org.

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