A SOLDIER from Darlington is making a difference to a village not far from the Kenyan Equator.
Sgt Robert Downie and his team from the Irish Guards are assisting the Royal Engineers to build a maternity hospital at Ontuliu, which is 100km north of Mount Kenya. It will provide care for a community that spreads over 219 sq km. There is very little medical care available and deaths of newly-born children and their mothers are commonplace.
Sgt Downie said: "When we arrived at the village we were told by the chief that the local church took ten years to build and nobody believed that a maternity hospital could be built in three months. Then when they began to see the bricks go up they couldn't believe it.
"The people here have nothing, and I mean nothing. This is a great experience for us all and makes us realise how very lucky we are."
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