Essential medical items such as surgical instruments designed to perform major medical procedures and estimated at US $90,000 were yesterday turned over to the staff at C. H. Rennie Hospital in Kakata, Margibi County, to help augment their work there, says a press release from the JNB communications department.
Last Wednesday’s gift, marked by a brief ceremony and attended by staff of both JNB Foundation and the hospital, had come as a relief to this rural hospital which caters to over 12,000 patients annually, according to Dr. Wilmot G. Frank, Jr.
The Charles Henry Memorial in Kakata otherwise known as “C.H. Rennie Hospital” was gutted by fire a few years ago, thereby forcing staffers to relocate the facility to its current site in Kakata, Margibi County.
“Please tell the JNB Foundation we appreciate the donation…the EKG machines are things we needed, and these [EKGs donated] are durable,” remarked Dr. Wilmot Frank, Medical Director at the hospital, who chatted with a senior staff of the foundation Thursday, in a telephone conversation.
He expressed deep gratitude to the president of the Republic of Liberia, H.E. Amb. Joseph Nyuma Boakai and his foundation for such a kind gesture. He prayed for the foundation’s continued support in helping to provide needed healthcare services to Margibians.
The donation forms part of a 40 ft. container load of medical supplies which arrived here several weeks ago with a total value placed at US $450,000. The items had been given to the foundation as a goodwill gesture from the US-based humanitarian group called Project C.U.R.E. based in Colorado.
The hospital, since the destruction of its previous facilities by fire, has been badly in need of essential medical supplies, including equipment such as laryngoscopes, oxygen tank regulators, vital sign machines, and EKGs, among others, included in the donation to C.H. Rennie Hospital Wednesday, by the JNB foundation.
Earlier, the JNB Foundation’s executive director, Mr. Jackson K. George informed the hospital staff of how President Boakai had always kept “Rennie Hospital” at the center of his heart, thus prompting the foundation to consider it in wake of the recent arrival of medical supplies.
He promised that his foundation would partner with the hospital in order to provide it with more assistance, saying “We aren’t the government; we aren’t here to do what the government is supposed to do. But we are here to supplement its efforts at providing healthcare.”
The Charles Henry Memorial Hospital is the second health facility in the country to receive such huge medical supplies from the President’s Foundation in recent times. The Redemption Hospital in Bushrod Island, Monrovia had received a similar donation from the foundation July 12, 2024.
The Phebe Lutheran Hospital in Gbarnga, Bong County, has been marked as the foundation’s next point of delivery on Tuesday, Aug. 6, while the Liberia Government Hospital in Tubmanburg, Bomi County, would receive its portion of medical gifts from the foundation Aug. 8.
Meanwhile, at the time of writing another container of assorted goods, mainly educational and medical materials from Portugal donated to this foundation had arrived and was being unloaded at the foundation’s Rehab Headquarters.