King’s Global Health Partnerships secures over $550,000 from CRI Foundation for Sierra Leone health partnership

The two-year grant of $554,582, running until April 2028, will fund core leadership, operations and clinical volunteering for KGHP in Sierra Leone (KGHP-SL), securing vital work with Connaught National Referral & Teaching Hospital, the University of Sierra Leone’s College of Medicine & Allied Health Sciences, and the Ministry of Health.

KGHP-SL was founded in 2012 and has become a trusted partner in strengthening Sierra Leone’s health system, from reforming undergraduate medical, nursing and pharmacy curricula to establishing an infectious diseases unit and the country’s first specialist stroke ward at Connaught Hospital. During the West Africa Ebola outbreak, the partnership opened six isolation facilities that treated over 1,150 patients and helped establish the Freetown Ebola Command Centre. More than 125 long-term international clinical volunteers have worked alongside Sierra Leonean colleagues through the partnership, which has also supported staff to undertake electives, master’s degrees and PhDs at King’s College London.

In January 2026, KGHP developed an exciting new strategy with partners in Sierra Leone. The CRI Foundation grant will allow the partnership to grow and invest in the delivery of this new strategy – spanning emergency care and trauma, surgery, infectious diseases, mental health, cancer, palliative care, dental and oral health, postgraduate training, hospital leadership, digital health and clinical research capacity.

With this grant, we have been able to employ a new Partnership Coordinator in Sierra Leone, Noah Sesay. Noah is a pharmacist trained at College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS) and Connaught Hospital, who previously worked with KGHP as an “AMS Champion” on the Commonwealth Partnership for Antimicrobial Stewardship (CwPAMS). He is currently completing his MRes at King’s on a Commonwealth Scholarship.

The grant is expected to act as a catalyst for further investment, with KGHP building an active pipeline of additional funders, including Else Kröner Fresenius Stiftung and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), to broaden and sustain its work in Sierra Leone.

We are recruiting clinical, management, and academic volunteers from across King’s Health Partners and beyond to support this work. If you are interested in learning more about how you can get involved, please contact us on kghp@kcl.ac.uk, or check out our latest volunteering opportunities.