Named Abu Bockarie Kargbo at birth and later changed by the British army to Abu Bockarie Farandugu (the name of his village), Pa Farandugu was a highly decorated soldier who fought in WWII on the side of the British and was promoted to Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) the equivalent of Sergant Major in the US Army. Upon return from war and unable to gain employment because of his lack of education, he encouraged his village to start a school to educate all children including girls. It was met with opposition, so he left his village in the North and went to the Southern part of the country where he enrolled all his children in school. He later moved back to the North.
She was born Kumba Kargbo to Muslim parents. Despite his beliefs at the time, Pa Frandugu, Kumba's father, sent her to Christian schools. During her time in elementary school, she learned about a woman in the bible who helped the poor and that inspired Kumba to change her first name to Dorcas. Thanks to her father, Pa Farandugu's vision, Dorcas started elementary school in Kabala, after her father and family returned to the North. She later went on to join the Harford School for girls in Moyamba where she continued to learn and was determined to gain the knowledge and skills her father yearned for each of his children to have an impact.
The first wife of Pa Farandugu, Sarah Marah (Nar Sarah) was a hard-working Muslim Koranko woman. She never received a formal education, but she was determined to provide for her children through what little she had in peanut farming. Her nephew served as chief and as such he and the other males in the family automatically had claim to land. Nar Sarah and other females had to be granted permission. One day in 1966, while home from Haford, Dorcas and her mother went to see Chief Balansama Marah to request land that Nar Sarah could use to farm and that would be used one day to establish a clinic. The chief agreed and that land would later become home to the NarSarah clinic.
After their wedding in Colorado in June 1965, Hope and Les Law traveled to Sierra Leone in August where they worked at the Harford School and got to know many of the students including Dorcas. They greatly admired Dorcas' desire even at that age to one day establish a clinic in her hometown. Upon Dorcas' graduation, with permission from Pa Farandugu and Nar Sarah, the Laws invited Dorcas to join them in the US where she pursued her bachelor's and then master's degree in Nursing. She later met and married Daniel Kamanda, a native of Sierra Leone who was working on his Phd at the University of Illinois.
After several visits to Sierra Leone, especially following the deadly civil war from 1991-2002, Dorcas teamed up with the Laws and several others in 2003 to launch a non-profit organization in the United States that would help to establish the clinic in Kabala and set a path for it to be self-sustainable. The clinic began operations out of Nar Sarah's kitchen, run by Dorcas' siblings Peacemaker and Teresa Kargbo. It later operated out of a 3-room building and now has expanded to a 10-room facility with 13 hospital beds and 15-20 employees.
While the initial focus was on healthcare, it was clear that poverty has many tentacles - education, nutrition, clean water, entrepreneurship etc. Additional projects were added including educational scholarships, agriculture and healing waters - to expand access to much needed services in the community.
With the ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2014, NarSarah clinic staff began working with both local and government officials to provide training and education in the community and in the surrounding villages where access was only possible on foot or on motorcycles.
In 2011, 8 years after it was launched, NarSarah clinic received the Marie Stopes Award for excellence in healthcare.
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