Local doctor spearheads medical supply shipment to Kenya

July 16, 2022

To the community: 

 In 2012, a determined man from a small village in Western Kenya made his way to the United States to essentially beg for help saving the lives of his fellow Kenyans.  

My brother, Niall Gannon, and I were touched and committed ourselves to the construction of a small local hospital in his remote village of Bolo in western Kenya. That hospital and clinic opened in November 2013 just after this Catholic priest, Fr. James Kisero, died as the result of street violence in Nairobi. The hospital, now called Father James Kisero Hospital, and the neighboring hospital, St. Monica’s in Kisumu have grown and are in desperate need of proper supplies.  

I am asking for help in getting those supplies on a long journey. To that end I am organizing a fundraiser to ship $250,000 of donated medical supplies and equipment to Kenya. Many of the donations are from Vermont area hospitals including Copley Hospital, University of Vermont Medical Center and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center as well as EMS agencies in Morristown, Stowe, Barre Town and NEMS based in Newport. 

We have now secured the supplies and they are being stored by our colleagues at Partners For World Health in Portland, Maine. We are trying to raise the $35,000 to purchase a 40-foot shipping container and ship/truck it overseas. 

More information about the project and fundraiser is online at bit.ly/careforkenya. Donations are tax-deductible. Thank you in advance.

Liam Gannon, M.D.

Medical Director, Copley Hospital Emergency Services

Waterbury