| Administrative History | Allocations: 1946-1947, 1963-1981. See later annual reports for any subsequent allocations.
SCF work began in Nigeria in 1946.
In 1962, after receiving medical reports on malnutrition in Nigeria, SCF decided to start work in the country as part of the Freedom From Hunger programme. It was agreed that the Wesley Guild Hospital in Ilesha would be the base from which SCF worked. The first Health Visitor arrived in Ilesha in March 1963, and a team of Nigerian and expatriate Health Visitors was built up over the next few years, working in Ilesha and 80 villages. The team paid home visits, gave lectures to student nurses in the hospital, and talks on health education in schools. A centre comprising accommodation, stores, office and garage was built on the site of an old leper colony to accommodate the growing team.
A community-built health clinic started operation in Iponda in August 1966. This enabled the SCF to start a regular welfare programme, including health educations talks, food demonstrations, and a vegetable garden.
A centre for 'Mothercraft Training' was established [in 1967] in a house given to SCF by the Ilesha Council.
In 1967 SCF made a grant towards the building of the 'Motherless Babies Home' in Ibadan.
SCF made a block grant to support the paediatrician and health visitor working at the Institute of Child Health in Lagos over four years.
The problem of malnutrition was exacerbated by the civil war in Nigeria, which caused the displacement of large numbers of people. Behind Federal lines, many people left their villages for the bush and had to be encouraged to return so that SCF could supply emergency food and treatment, on the Eastern Nigeria side, people retreated from the front of the fighting, causing an increase in population in a small area with a limited capacity for producing food.
In April 1968, SCF carried out an investigation into the needs of children affected by the fighting in the Eastern States of Nigeria. Money was immediately allocated for food and drugs for refugees located on an isolated sandbank of the Niger River. Following this relief operation, further journeys were made into the Eastern States to bring nursing aid to sick children in the Enugu area, where there was widespread malnutrition. SCF launched an emergency appeal for funds to provide food and drugs. The food was sent to Lagos, transported to an area east of Port Harcourt, where it was estimated that 80,000 people, 65% of them children, were starving.
In July [1968] the Director General of SCF and the British Government Mission visited Nigeria to review the situation. SCF started sending emergency medical relief teams to Nigeria, to start work in Refugee Camp clinics in Ishiagu, but in early October they were ordered to evacuate by the IRC and sent back to London. At the beginning of 1969 there were 35 doctors, nurses, and relief workers in the emergency area, providing food and medical aid. Two SCF workers were killed when their vehicle met with an ambush and hit a landmine. In October 1968, a small hospital was set up in a local church next door to the house in which the team had their headquarters. With the acquisition of more vehicles, mobile clinics were set up, allowing SCF to start a programme of mass feeding and medical care. |