Items from disused Gosport hospital sent to Africa to save lives

Portsmouth paper, The News reports on our work. October 2015.

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/items-from-disused-gosport-hospital-sent-to-africa-to-save-lives-1-6993981

CLIVE HAMMOND
06:52 Tuesday 06 October 2015

• Beds and office furniture have been cleared out of Royal Hospital Haslar to be shipped to Africa
• Two charities have been collecting the items to send to schools and hospitals
• The site is being redeveloped for housing, care homes, shops and other facilities

TWO charities have teamed up to strip a derelict hospital of equipment to help save lives in Africa.

Stubbington-based Farm4Life got Fareham cause The Practical Tools Initiative involved with its project to take supplies from the disused Royal Hospital, Haslar so they could be shipped to Ghana and Sierra Leone.

They need everything, even something as simple as peddle bins

The former hospital closed in 2009, much to the dismay of many people who wanted a medical facility to remain in Gosport.

Owners of the site have now allowed the charities to reuse items such as beds, medicine cabinets and chairs – sending them to Africa to be used in schools and hospitals.

Lloyd Clewer, who runs Farm4Life, was pleased with the progress that had made and what they had found.

‘They need everything in these African nations, even something as simple as pedal bins,’ he said.

‘Ghana, in particular, used to be one of the best countries on the continent and now it has gone right down.

‘Over there the government aren’t even paying the staff so they don’t have seats to sit on or beds for patients.

‘They can’t get it unless someone gives it to them, so what we are doing is giving hospitals and schools the chance to be normal.’

As Haslar no longer has electricity, Lloyd and James Fallah-Williams, a charity worker with The Practical Tools Initiative, had to get the items out through dark corridors and staircases.

The duo are now looking for members of the public to help shift the supplies into containers so they can be sent over to Africa later in the month.

Caroline Dinenage, MP for Gosport, visited Lloyd and James at the hospital.

She said: ‘Royal Hospital Haslar was a hugely valuable and much-loved part of Gosport and a lot people were very upset with its closure.

‘So to know the new owners of the property have donated all the furniture and will go overseas to save other lives in other countries is of some goodness.’

‘The two charities involved have worked virtually single-handedly.’