KAKATA, Margibi – A local NGO has donated a drum of diesel fuel to the government-run C.H. Rennie Referral Hospital in Kakata. The Professionals for Community Empowerment and Development group said the donation came after discovering that the hospital was now rationing electricity, a practice that threatened the health of patients, especially women in labor.

James Sackie, the group’s deputy executive director, said the organization, which is comprised of professionals of varying backgrounds, is not particularly wealthy.

“But the fact is, as professional people, we want to pay back to the community from our little cents we earned from our hard work as professionals,” Sackie said.

At the donation ceremony on March 14, the organization’s financial officer, Stephen Kollie, chimed in: “Even though we have not reached our zenith, we see the need to give to people in need.”

He noted that the group had similarly donated two drums of fuel to Phebe Hospital in Bong, another facility that, like the C.H. Rennie, has been facing serious fuel shortage, even reportedly resulting in the loss of lives.

C.H. Rennie’s administrator, Mulbah Saywayla, thanked the group for targeting a hospital overburdened by the influx of patients from parts of Grand Bassa, Bong, Gbarpolu, and Rural Montserrado.

While he welcomed the donation of fuel, Saywayla acknowledged it was a temporary measure and emphasized the need for the hospital to mobilize its resources to switch to solar power.

Like many public hospitals, the C.H. Rennie continues to face financial challenges as the administration says the central government has delayed in providing its budgetary allotment. Now, patients are frequently asked to fuel the hospital’s generator in order to perform surgical operations, even though the government has a stated policy of free services to the public at such facilities.

Featured photo by Emmanuel Degleh