Doctors forgo local practice for jobs in Africa

I thought this was a great article about a couple from Ohio moving to northern Sierra Leone to run a hospital. There is a huge need in Sierra Leone for medical professionals. For the full text of the article, click below:

Toledo pair to direct Sierra Leone hospital

By JULIE M. McKINNON

The Ashers long had planned to do full-time medical mission work, probably somewhere in Central America, after their three children graduated from college. But when Drs. Thomas and Karen Asher learned Kamakwie Wesleyan Hospital in Sierra Leone was in dire need of a director, their career-mission timing was accelerated by at least eight years.

"We just really felt called: 'This is what we're going to do,'•" recalled Dr. Karen Asher, whose husband is in Kamakwie getting guidance from the departing longtime director.

The Ashers and their youngest, Matthew, 14, plan to move to Kamakwie this fall after raising funding - $60,000 a year, including their combined salary of $17,000 - and finishing work in the Toledo area. In November, the doctors closed their Toledo family medicine practice after 14 years, although they still have patients in nursing homes and elsewhere.