.Ambulance leaving Saskatoon

You may recall recently, CCFC reaching out to our supporters requesting funds to ship a much needed amublance to Ethiopia. Through your generous support, Christian Children's Fund of Canada raised $23,000.

On July 3rd , MD Ambulance chief operating officer Gerry Schriemer embarked on a nearly 5,000-kilometre trip to drive one of the service's retired ambulances to Halifax. The $120,000 vehicle was stocked with $25,000 worth of medical supplies also donated by the ambulance service, including two stretchers. Five centimetres too wide to fit into a cross-country shipping container, the ambulance will be driven down the Trans-Canada Highway to the East Coast, where it will board a ship for the voyage to Africa. The ship will dock in Djibouti, on Africa's eastern coast, where its new owners will pick it up and drive it to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

The ambulance will immediately be put into use as part of CCFC’s HIV/AIDS program in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. There is no 911 system, so the only way to know if someone has fallen seriously ill is by word of mouth. If a person's condition worsens, an an attempt is made to take them to a hospital.

"Unfortunately, there is no safe way to transfer them to the hospital," said Stephanie Ashton, Resource Procurement Officer, for CCFC. "They've been doing it on bicycles, on backs of cars, on donkey carts. Basically, however they can find a way."

Schriemer said in a media release Wednesday the ambulance service "knew they had to do something" when they heard of sick people travelling for kilometres on mats dragged through the dirt by donkeys or carried by family members.

An ambulance ride will be more humane, Ashton said.

"These people are already living a really difficult life," she said. "They live almost like a shunned life because of the infection."

CCFC staff in Ethiopia were overjoyed when they got news of the ambulance, Ashton said.

"They said, 'God bless you. God bless you!' They thought it was a miracle," Ashton said.

Schriemer explained that when an ambulance ages, the service will try to sell the vehicle. Usually tradespeople buy them and strip them down to use as service or courier vans.