Watford charity Eagles Wings were in Nakuru, Kenya to see the arrival and hand over of Britannia Ambulance's emergency ambulance to their Kenyan partners.
“I had no idea how challenging this would be!” says Bruce Oliver of Cassiobury Estate, Watford, trustee of Eagle Wings.
“Two of my close friends were killed in a car crash in Nakuru, Kenya and no ambulance was available for them.”
Britannia Ambulances of Bricket Wood kindly donated one of their vehicles to Eagles Wings who arranged and paid for the shipment to Africa.
“The paperwork, red tape and preparation was expensive and laborious but we got there in the end “says Bruce.” The main emergency stretcher was stolen at Mombasa docks and the vehicle 'disappeared' for a while incurring rather spurious storage costs and demurrage charges. “This is unfortunately part of Kenyan life, but nevertheless, we now have one of the only ambulances in the region albeit without a proper emergency stretcher, in a town which is home to 200,000 people!”
“Its pretty low stealing a stretcher, but it gives some understanding of how desperate life is in parts of Africa.”
Bruce Oliver of Eagles Wings, and his wife Sharon, are visiting Kenya and Northern Uganda again in November to further their work amongst vulnerable children and needy families.
