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MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS \n<\/p>\n
Abdulai Konteh, along with his wife, Kanko Mansaray, has been working with their community to gather money and medical supplies to fill a container which will be shipped to the Kabala Government Hospital in northern Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n
The shipment was sponsored by Kanko Mansaray, a health-care aide at the Health Sciences Centre, and Abdulai Konteh, who also used to work as a health-care aide.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will help save lots of lives,\u201d said Konteh, as volunteers tightly packed the shipping container with boxes and hospital beds. \u201cPeople are struggling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Konteh and Mansaray, a married couple, set up a non-profit, One Salone Aid & Education Foundation, which aims to provide school supplies and medical equipment to those in need in their home country of Sierra Leone, where they emigrated from in 2000.<\/p>\n
The 12-metre-long (40 feet) shipping container was packed full of 25 hospital beds and mattresses, a birthing bed, more than 500 boxes of other medical supplies \u2014 everything from gauze and bed linens to catheters and intravenous tubing \u2014 and examination tables, procedure lights, an ultrasound machine and other health-care items. It will take about two months for the container to reach its destination.<\/p>\n
Konteh said the idea to apply for and arrange an International Hope Canada shipment was a long time in the making.<\/p>\n
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\n<\/p>\n Kevin Stewart (centre), president of International Hope Canada, with Kanko Mansaray (left) and Abdulai Konteh (right), as volunteers load a shipping container with medical supplies. <\/p>\n When Konteh was working as a health-care aide in Winnipeg in 2017, he talked with a friend about a then-ongoing Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, and they decided to work together to ship some personal protective equipment from Winnipeg to the hospital in Kabala.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018You know what, we may need to do something more (for the hospital),\u2019\u201d he said, which eventually led him to work with International Hope Canada to set up another, bigger shipment of equipment and supplies after several false starts over the years.<\/p>\n He was jubilant as he helped load up the container Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s super, super, super important,\u201d said Konteh. \u201cThere\u2019s no word I can use to describe it.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the hospital and its staff critically need the supplies to provide care.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS
\n<\/p>\n Kevin Stewart, president of International Hope Canada, said some of the hospitals the charity has helped don\u2019t have enough beds for every patient, leaving some patients to sleep on cardboard on the floor.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just for the people, the patients, but also the staff,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have the tools that are necessary, it makes your job very, very difficult. Just for them to have the tools, to be able to do their job efficiently, there\u2019s no word I can use to express that, I\u2019m so excited.\u201d<\/p>\n He said it\u2019s easy to take Canada\u2019s medical and educational systems for granted, adding his non-profit can be reached by email at info@onesaloneaid.org.<\/p>\n Konteh and others raised funds to help pay for the shipment. Such shipments typically cost about $20,000, said International Hope\u2019s volunteer president, Kevin Stewart.<\/p>\n The organization sends about seven shipping containers to hospitals in need during the year. Winnipeg organizations and charities that represent people who immigrated from various countries often apply for the shipments, as do some hospitals and health authorities in other countries.<\/p>\n \u201cWe complain a lot about our (health-care) system, but comparatively, it\u2019s a gold-standard system,\u201d said Stewart, adding some of the hospitals the charity has helped don\u2019t have enough beds for every patient, leaving some patients to sleep on cardboard on the floor.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Volunteers load wheelchairs into the container. <\/p>\n Most of the goods are donated by Manitoba hospitals, medical businesses and nursing homes after the equipment or supplies can no longer be used here.<\/p>\n The organization also takes donations from the public and sells some of the goods it typically doesn\u2019t ship to developing countries \u2014 such as stair lifts or electric wheelchairs \u2014 to help raise money and purchase supplies. International Hope Canada can be reached at info@internationalhope.ca.<\/p>\n erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS
\n<\/p>\n Volunteers pack a shipping container with hospital beds.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS
\n<\/p>\n Volunteers prepare hospital beds for the shipping container. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS
\n<\/p>\n Volunteers load a hospital bed with mattresses for the shipping container. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS
\n<\/p>\n Volunteers load a hospital bed piled high with mattresses into the shipping container. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Erik Pindera Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.\u00a0 Read more about Erik<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Erik produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS
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