Our first spotlight?

Tonight I finally nominated Dr. Samuel Kargbo for CNN's hero award. He's an amazing, inspiring guy I met for only 20 minutes in Sierra Leone, but I feel compelled to bring attention to his work. Below is what I submitted for his nomination - it's a little clunky because each paragraph had ridiculously tight word limits. Enjoy!

"I have traveled to more than 30 developing countries and Sierra Leone is without a doubt the most undeveloped place I have ever seen. It ranks dead last on the UN Human Development Index – more than 80 percent of the population is illiterate and one in four children dies before his fifth birthday. Koinadugu, with a population of nearly 300,000, is the country’s most impoverished and inaccessible district, with no electricity or other infrastructure. And in this place, where the ten-year civil war brought the health care system to a standstill, Dr. Samuel Kargbo, a Western-educated Sierra Leonean, chooses to work. He is the only medical doctor in the district and earns $200 a month.

Since 2005, Dr. Kargbo single-handedly recruited and now supervises nine health officers in the district. Among his many achievements: (1) creating ‘birth waiting homes’ where pregnant women stay weeks before they are due so that they have access to medical care; (2) forming support groups for pregnant women to share their experiences monthly and receive ante natal care services; (3) instituting village savings and loans schemes that have empowered community members to be able to pay for health services; and (4) establishing an ambulance service.

Because of Dr. Kargbo’s efforts to curb home deliveries, the number of such births has dropped from 70 percent to 40 percent resulting in a 36% reduction in still births, a 35% reduction in maternal mortality, a dramatic increase in Caesarean sections, an increase in clinic attendance and voluntary testing for HIV, and elimination of the risk of fistula formation.

He inspires everyone he meets, including a BBC medical reporter who called him “perhaps the most remarkable doctor I’ve ever met.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7202278.stm

Dr. Kargbo’s brother, a Lieutenant, was killed by rebels March 23, 1991; he was literally the very first victim of the country’s civil war. Dr. Kargbo's response was extraordinary; he organized vaccination campaigns in combat zones sometimes under a hail of gunfire. He has dedicated his life to grassroots medical service in one of the most underserved regions of the world and continues to this day because he feels there is a huge gap between global attention to health-related Millennium Development Goals and community-level action to actually achieve them.

Dr. Kargbo saves lives on a daily basis, works where no one else will work, provides healthcare to the most needy people on earth, is paid a pittance, and could at any moment choose to leave Sierra Leone to better his own life but, instead chooses to stay and work tirelessly and passionately for the people of Koinadugu.