Face-lift for psychiatric hospital in Sierra Leone

[dArKeR]

Sub-Saharan Africa's first psychiatric hospital, built in 1827 in Sierra Leone, is to get a badly-needed makeover with a loan from the Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank, Sierra Leone officials said on Thursday.

At a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, the west African state's health minister, Agnes Taylor-Lewis, said the two million-dollar renovations would mark a "great leap in helping to push the issue of good mental health forward".

Years of conflict and poverty have taken their toll on the British-built hospital in Kissy just east of the capital Freetown, and have contributed to the decline in mental health care available to Sierra Leone's 5,7-million people.

During the decade-long rebel war that raged in the impoverished state until 2001, the hospital was invaded repeatedly by rebels.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=30397