TWO Cotswold GPs who have visited Ebola-stricken Sierra Leone are urging people to support their campaign to provide education for children in the country.

Locum GP Veronica Sawicki and her husband Rohit Sethi (pictured), a GP at the Phoenix surgery in Cirencester, have set up Help Madina to assist children living in the Madina district of Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone has been hit hard by the Ebola epidemic and as a result schools in Madina have been closed for months and will remains so for the foreseeable future, as the couple have seen first-hand after a recent visit.

In order to ensure children continue to get an education, the Madina community has developed a project called Education by Radio, which broadcasts lessons daily.

To fund this project, £6,000 is needed for six months of broadcasts and Veronica and Rohit are helping to drum up donations through their charity.

Mrs Sawicki, who used to work as a GP at Lechlade Medical Centre, and is now a locum in the Cotswolds, said: “As everyone will have seen from the news, the conditions for many during this Ebola epidemic are harrowing.

“The people of Sierra Leone are facing huge challenges. Help Madina is in a unique position to help. We know the community, having visited Madina each year for the last seven years. We share friendship based upon mutual respect and trust.

“Our charity has no administrative costs. We fund our own trips entirely. This means that each penny collected here in the UK reaches the person who is in need in its entirety.”

Mrs Sawicki added: “Children cannot play together as they would under normal circumstances because contact sports such as football are forbidden.

“The need for education is vital. The younger children are saying they want to learn their ABCs and one, two, threes. The older children are facing different issues. Teenage pregnancy is increasing and there is no health care provision.”

To help, visit the website at helpmadina.org.uk or send a cheque made payable to Help Madina to Laverton House, Fairford, GL7 4AB.