7:00pm Thursday 21st June 2007
By Andy Martin
A STAFF nurse from Bournemouth is to spearhead the launching of an Aids orphanage in Nepal for a Dorset-based international charity.
Lyndsey Drummond will spend a week in South Africa during the summer on a fact-finding mission before beginning work on the project later in the year.
The 28-year-old, from Southbourne, who works in the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, is leading the initiative on behalf of the Murry Foundation.
The environmental foundation - chaired and run by local businessman Adam Murry - already has a highly successful orphanage for young victims of Aids in South Africa, currently looking after nearly 100 children.
"That will be my starting point," said Lyndsey. "I will find out as much as I can about how the foundation works there, what lessons there are to be learned and then come up with a proposal for something similar in Nepal."
She added: "It will be huge challenge because Nepal is way behind in dealing with a big Aids problem, in terms of funding, facilities and also in coming to terms with the disease as a social and economic issue.
"The country is suffering from a concentrated epidemic with the prevalence of Aids rising rapidly.
"This is a good example of where another part of the world can learn something from Africa. I am very excited at having the opportunity to be leading this. I believe it will make a difference."
Adam, who lives in Bournemouth, said Nepal, where he is currently establishing a tiger rehabilitation and release scheme, and an orphan children's village to house over 1,000 children, had not made the treatment of HIV/Aids a priority.
"They are not dealing with it, which is why we think there's a need to do something along the lines of what we have achieved in South Africa.
"There we are working closely with the government, which donates the medication for all the children in our care.
"In Nepal, there is virtually no funding for HIV/Aids and the vast majority of what there is goes to men - women and children are allocated almost nothing."
He added: "All our projects are multi-dimensional. We don't just look at an issue in isolation, but in the wider context of education, the environment and sustainability.
"We aim to establish projects which are viable and sustainable for the long term. We are about saving lives and making them better - human and animal."
The foundation campaigns on child care and animal welfare issues at home and abroad with the help of fundraisers across the UK and patrons such as Jamie and Louise Redknapp and boxers Evander Holyfield and Steve Collins.
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