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Geldof Backs Health For All
East Kent charity Health for All sends nurses and midwives from Kent to India and Ethiopia to share medical skills with the developing countries, a subject close to Bob Geldof's heart. View Transcript
View Synopsis
TOM CHOWN reports.
Ethiopia, in East Africa. Volunteer midwives from the Kent charity Health for All are here to share their medical skills with the hospital staff, the efforts of which have now attracted the attention of Kent resident Sir Bob Geldof.
BOB GELDOF KBE, Anti-Poverty Campaigner: '... and then you hear about a bunch of midwives in Bridge in Kent who've decided -- completely anonymously -- with a few quid to go to Tigray, for God's sake! It's a province of Ethiopia... I'm off you know, I'm gonna teach them to do this thing because I can and they want and they need to... what can you say? Of course you say that's completely and utterly brilliant!'
This grassroots approach was the idea of local GP Mark Jones, who first established the medical partnership with a non-governmental organization in India. Since they began working with the Tigray Health Bureau in Ethiopia, they've helped to train more than a thousand midwives and health workers who travel to the remote villages to help combat malnutrition and curb the high infant mortality rates.
Tom Chown, KENT TV: 'To me sharing resources seems like a logical idea, but I can imagine that's quite full of pitfalls and it's quite troublesome to get to where you've got to?'
Dr MARK JONES GP, Trustee, Health for All: 'It was nothing more complicated than it seemed like a good idea at the time. It was something we were looking at within the practice, with the doctors, the nurses, the other staff within the practice and there was a wish to try and look outside of what we were doing within our own community and see what we could do in another community. Well, what we've been able to do along the way is by demonstrating that what we're doing is effective, we've been able to get other people on board, so there've been other practices in the Canterbury area, other doctors, the midwives of the trust and now East Kent Hospitals Trust have come on board, so we're trying to increase the number of people who have that enthusiasm and opportunity to support development work.'
Funded by voluntary donations, the East Kent charity is on Bob Geldof's doorstep. The 1984 famine which swept across the Horn of Africa led to the Boomtown Rats frontman helping to form Band Aid and the following year's Live Aid concert. Poverty in the developing world is an issue that's remained close to his heart.
BOB GELDOF KBE: 'Health for All is, even though it's an NGO, it's actually a bunch of doctors and nurses and midwives, which is a different kettle of fish. It reminds me a bit of a regional Médecins Sans Frontières who did... and I knew Bernard Kustchter, in fact we shared offices in Paris, Band Aid and Médecins Sans Frontières, when they began, so it strikes me as that and you know the fact that you've got a core group of doctors, nurses, midwives who you can call on and who actively enjoy this and it gives meaning to their skills and their lives and clearly a full meaning to those people that they're helping. It's fantastic that it comes from this county and specifically as someone who lives in Kent, it's fantastic it comes from Kent, something so eminently logical, you know, and who had the balls to suddenly say, you know, who went out there out of curiosity in the first place and said, "you know what? I'm gonna go back and ask a couple of midwives about this place..." how do you even start that? That's cool. This is sorting it out in the most direct way, that's ridiculous! Do you want to go in there and...? Yeah I'll go in there and help, done, perfect.'
From a small village near Canterbury to India and Ethiopia, this global health partnership between East Kent and developing countries looks set to grow.
Ethiopia, in East Africa. Volunteer midwives from the Kent charity Health for All are here to share their medical skills with the hospital staff, the efforts of which have now attracted the attention of Kent resident Sir Bob Geldof.
BOB GELDOF KBE, Anti-Poverty Campaigner: '... and then you hear about a bunch of midwives in Bridge in Kent who've decided -- completely anonymously -- with a few quid to go to Tigray, for God's sake! It's a province of Ethiopia... I'm off you know, I'm gonna teach them to do this thing because I can and they want and they need to... what can you say? Of course you say that's completely and utterly brilliant!'
This grassroots approach was the idea of local GP Mark Jones, who first established the medical partnership with a non-governmental organization in India. Since they began working with the Tigray Health Bureau in Ethiopia, they've helped to train more than a thousand midwives and health workers who travel to the remote villages to help combat malnutrition and curb the high infant mortality rates.
Tom Chown, KENT TV: 'To me sharing resources seems like a logical idea, but I can imagine that's quite full of pitfalls and it's quite troublesome to get to where you've got to?'
Dr MARK JONES GP, Trustee, Health for All: 'It was nothing more complicated than it seemed like a good idea at the time. It was something we were looking at within the practice, with the doctors, the nurses, the other staff within the practice and there was a wish to try and look outside of what we were doing within our own community and see what we could do in another community. Well, what we've been able to do along the way is by demonstrating that what we're doing is effective, we've been able to get other people on board, so there've been other practices in the Canterbury area, other doctors, the midwives of the trust and now East Kent Hospitals Trust have come on board, so we're trying to increase the number of people who have that enthusiasm and opportunity to support development work.'
Funded by voluntary donations, the East Kent charity is on Bob Geldof's doorstep. The 1984 famine which swept across the Horn of Africa led to the Boomtown Rats frontman helping to form Band Aid and the following year's Live Aid concert. Poverty in the developing world is an issue that's remained close to his heart.
BOB GELDOF KBE: 'Health for All is, even though it's an NGO, it's actually a bunch of doctors and nurses and midwives, which is a different kettle of fish. It reminds me a bit of a regional Médecins Sans Frontières who did... and I knew Bernard Kustchter, in fact we shared offices in Paris, Band Aid and Médecins Sans Frontières, when they began, so it strikes me as that and you know the fact that you've got a core group of doctors, nurses, midwives who you can call on and who actively enjoy this and it gives meaning to their skills and their lives and clearly a full meaning to those people that they're helping. It's fantastic that it comes from this county and specifically as someone who lives in Kent, it's fantastic it comes from Kent, something so eminently logical, you know, and who had the balls to suddenly say, you know, who went out there out of curiosity in the first place and said, "you know what? I'm gonna go back and ask a couple of midwives about this place..." how do you even start that? That's cool. This is sorting it out in the most direct way, that's ridiculous! Do you want to go in there and...? Yeah I'll go in there and help, done, perfect.'
From a small village near Canterbury to India and Ethiopia, this global health partnership between East Kent and developing countries looks set to grow.
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