Dispensing health care in the Third World is so different to that of affluent western societies and The Gambia is no exception. Patients do not arrive with minor ailments, the majority are admitted with serious health conditions requiring urgent and at times very lengthy procedures to be performed.

Many of the ailments, viruses and infections are consistent with extremely hot and humid Equatorial zones. Malaria, diarrhoea, malnutrition, tuberculosis, anaemia, snakebite, dysentery, pneumonia,  burns and severely broken limbs are just a few of the more common entries on the hospital patient's records.

Further critical factors that complicate the treatment and care of the patients are the extremes of weather that the region is subjected to. There are two distinct seasons in the Gambia namely the rainy season and the dry season.

The rainy season temperatures in Bansang, during June to October, hover constantly around 30 degrees celsius together with saturating levels of humidity caused by the torrential rainfall. These rains turn the landscape into a quagmire and frequently villages are cut off and even main road links to the hospital become hazardous and at times impassable.

This is where Meg and the new Land Rover come in; allowing much needed medical supplies to reach people unable to make it to the hospital.

For further information about the region we are helping and the work the charities we support are carrying our please visit

www.bansanghospitalappeal.com and www.villageclinicappeal.com