Where The Money Goes

Facing Africa is a registered charity in the UK. Our annual accounts are online through The Charities Commission.

The money raised goes towards sending teams of volunteer surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses to Ethiopia and Nigeria each year. Each team varies in size from one trip to another , but usually is made up of 10 - 14 volunteers.

• Travel arrangements - flights, hotels, meals, ground transportation
• Medical - large quantities of medications, anaesthetic drugs, consumables
• Surgical equipment - most missions take replacements for faulty or non-existent surgical equipment and instruments which are left behind at the end of the trip for the hospital.
• CT scans - most of the patients require CT scans which cost around £60 - £100 and each mission will perform 40 - 55 operations.
• Care for the patients at The Cheshire Home in Addis Ababa for 40 - 60 patients for pre and post op care for up to 7 or 8 weeks.

Each team visit costs around £40,000 - £50,000. We fund 2 trips a year to Ethiopia and share the costs of sending 4 teams a year to Nigeria with our Dutch and German colleagues (Facing Africa pays for the flights to Nigeria, usually around £15,000 for each trip)

We have recently agreed to fund the construction and equipping of a new building to house 2 dormitories and a recreation room for the pre and post op? patients who will be staying at the Cheshire Home. The estimated cost is £65,000

We are also hoping to fund some new and rather expensive equipment for the MCM Hospital in Ethiopia later in 2010.

It is important to note that Facing Africa is a small charity that depends very heavily on the goodwill and generosity of our supporters and those people who take part in fund raising events on our behalf. Our overheads in the UK are minimal with no salaries other than a part time fund raiser (Mrs Yzanne Martin)

It is also important to be aware that we do not send money to Africa unless we are able to monitor its use 100%. Any equipment or drugs are all bought in the UK or Europe.

We employ two full-time people in Ethiopia, our Manager, Dawit who has been with us for almost 3 years and gets paid £4,000 p.a. and his assistant Geze who is paid £1,600 p.a. Both are extremely important to Facing Africa as they spend most of the year sourcing new noma patients throughout Ethiopia and take care of their transportation and wellbeing during the weeks the patients are having operations in Addis Ababa.

© 2012 Facing Africa - Noma Ltd. All Rights Reserved. UK Registered Charity No: 1072505