Compassion UK chief in Kilimanjaro climb for new Haiti hospital

The chief executive of Compassion UK is getting ready to scale Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds for a new hospital in Haiti.

Ian Hamilton will climb Africa's tallest peak in just a few weeks time with the director of humanitarian agency LemonAid, Justin Dowds.

They aim to raise £250,000 to provide a new hospital for the people on the island of La Gonâve after its only medical facility, the Wesleyan Hospital, was left in ruins following the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12.

Hospital staff have had to use a make-shift tent to attend to the injured on the island, home to around 120,000 inhabitants.

With thousands of people still receiving medical care as a result of the injuries they sustained in the earthquake, the island is in urgent need of a secure, stable and well equipped hospital.

“Haiti is the most desperate place I visit in my role as CEO,” said Mr Hamilton.

“I took a reluctant Justin with me around three years ago. We dreamed up this plan of a sponsored climb of Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, to raise funds.

"Even before the earthquake the 33-bed hospital was desperately inadequate for the needs of the people.

"A new hospital will make the lives of La Gonâve’s people safer, including thousands of Compassion sponsored children and their families; the kind of safety we take for granted.”

Mr Dowds recalls, “When I first visited the hospital the dedication of the staff to do their very best in the crumbling structure touched me deeply. As we waited we saw a small boy rushed in with a deep cut to his abdomen that he’d torn as he tried to scale a glass topped wall.

"He arrived at the hospital on the back of a motorbike, literally holding his insides in.

"The hospital staff rushed him into surgery and with incredible skill saved his life. One of the nurses even donated a pint of her blood to save the child. That sealed it for me. I want to show that level of commitment to bring the very best hospital facility to the very least of these.”

La Gonâve is one of several islands off the mainland of Haiti, officially the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

Compassion is currently running 23 projects on the island in partnership with local churches, serving more than 5,000 children.