FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE (ANS) -- Even though Greece is hurting, a group calling themselves the “Heart Doctors” have been helping others during a unique seven-day medical mission to the sick in the Sierra Leone capital of Freetown.

Patients waiting for treatment

This was revealed to the ASSIST News Service by Fr. Dr. Themi Adams, a one-time rock star and now a missionary serving in Sierra Leone.

“After a rocky start of red tape these two men and women, set themselves the task of ministering to thousands of men, women and children in Freetown,” he said.

“One of the major problems facing any developing nation relates to health issues. This is especially so in Sierra Leone, which has only recently recovered from a devastating civil war.

“The statistics are really shocking. The average life expectancy up to a few years ago was 41 for females and 37 for males. This represents less than half the life expectancy for Australians, Americans or Europeans. Indeed the child mortality rate is deplorable – about 20% of children will not reach the age of five. Furthermore even of you can afford to see a doctor and buy the required medicine there is no guarantee that the medicine you have purchased is authentic and not counterfeit (usually produced in Nigeria).”

Fr. Themi explained that “within this background” the Holy Orthodox Diocese of Sierra Leone recent welcomed a medical team from Greece known as the “Heart Doctors.”

Fr. Themi

“This is a team of volunteers who travel all over Africa providing free medical service including the dispensing gratis of the latest relevant European (Swiss, German, etc.) medicine. They are equipped to see a large number of patients per day,” he said.

During the visit, we organized a series of locations where they would provide this extraordinary and philanthropic medical service. These included our compound in New Waterloo where we have built an entire housing complex for a community of disabled, their spouses and their children (the St. Moses Orthodox Village).

“Here, at the clinic, the medical team treated the disabled community, the children of our school and the broader surrounding community. Over one thousand people availed of this opportunity. Furthermore they treated the children of our large school in Freetown (Freetown Orthodox Christian School) which has over 1500 pupils.”

Fr. Themi added that on Saturday June 9, 2012, they provided the people living in the poverty stricken slim of Colvert with an entire day of medical service.

“This was attended by a very large number of people who under normal circumstances could never afford such medical treatment. The next day they returned to Greece,” said Fr. Themi.

“Our Diocese wishes to express its gratitude to the ‘Heart Doctors’ and we thank God in Christ for their wonderful service to humanity. They will be coming back in November this year. We look forward to their return as do thousands of other people in Freetown.”

To read the extraordinary story of Fr. Themi, please go to: http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2012/s12050035.htm 

Dan Wooding, 71, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 48 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. He hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on the KWVE Radio Network in Southern California and which is also carried throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK and also in Belize and South Africa. Besides this, Wooding is a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 192 countries and also provides a regular commentary for Worship Life Radio on KWVE. You can follow Dan Wooding on Facebook under his name there or at ASSIST News Service. Dan has recently received two top media awards -- the "Passion for the Persecuted" award from Open Doors US, and one of the top "Newsmakers of 2011" from Plain Truth magazine. He is the author of some 44 books, the latest of which is "Caped Crusader: Rick Wakeman in the 1970s." To order a copy, go to: http://www.amazon.com/CAPED-CRUSADER-Rick-Wakeman-1970s/dp/1908728302/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335474883&sr=1-1 . Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, has also recently released his first novel “Red Dagger” which is available this link.