10 May 2005: The outpatient clinic (OPC) for children opened.
10 May 2012: The outpatient clinic is thriving, seeing a couple hundred patients a week.
We celebrated the OPC's 7th birthday. I am very thankful to have been a part of the OPC for so many years. When I first arrived in Sierra Leone in 2005 I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. My mission was to open a clinic. After a few weeks in Sierra Leone I learned that child mortality was the highest in the world and there were no pediatric facilities in Aberdeen and surrounding areas. My love for children and the dire need for pediatric care made the decision making process easy: we would start with an outpatient clinic for children. The work was very rewarding but also challenging. The days were often long (especially when it was just me in the clinic trying to see 55-65 patients a day!) and cases sometimes severe. By God's grace and an excellent OPC team, we carried on. And now, 7 years later, the clinic is still seeing numerous patients a day. I'm thankful to God, the OPC/AWC team and my friends and family for their support.
The future of the clinic is in God's hands. Please pray for guidance and wisdom for those currently working there and provision of staff in the near future. The future is in His hands.
Photo with Badara, former patient, now 6 years old, who first came to me in the clinic when he was two days old.
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