Mission of mercy How lives are transformed

The New Foundations Christian medical mission was launched in Enekorogha with a clinic leased for free by the Nigerian government. Derelict and overgrown, no Nigerian medics would work in such a dangerous, remote part of the Niger Delta.

Local faith healers were initially hostile to the Donovans, and even the village’s name translates as “the place you cannot stay”.

Today, the mission has four clinics and 27 staff and claims to have cut infant mortality from 44 per cent to two per cent.

Four years ago, it joined forces with Ian Squire’s Mission for Vision. Mr Squire, who trained local staff, performed thousands of cataract operations and set up walk-in clinics where patients could have lenses prescribed and manufactured.