WAR has interrupted a Winchester medical charity's links with South Sudan in Africa.

But The Brickworks charity is hoping to send a team this year to northern Uganda to help refugees displaced from South Sudan.

The link between Winchester and Yei Hospitals was established in 2010, and since then teams from the Royal Hampshire County Hospital have visited to work with local doctors and nurses as well as staff in training schools.

These visits have resulted in bilateral achievements, including teaching, education, setting up a malnutrition centre and, for the first time, a functioning blood transfusion clinic in Yei.

In return Winchester staff gained first-hand experiences of tropical diseases and learning to work with limited resources.

Now, due to the unstable political situation, it is too dangerous to send Winchester teams to Yei and most of the local population have fled to refugee camps in Uganda.

The Winchester-Yei link has been supported by a charity based in Winchester, The Brickworks, founded in 2009 by John and Poppy Spens.

Mr Spens, chairman, said: “Our charity used to work exclusively in South Sudan building primary schools, working with the churches and improving health care but due to the current conflict, it’s no longer safe to visit.

"Instead, we are working with those who have been displaced from the towns of Yei and KajoKeji, to the refugee camps in northern Uganda.”

The largest of these camps has more than 270,000 refugees, mainly women and children, and is believed to be the largest refugee camp in the world.

One way the charity has been helping is to pay the college fees of students who are half way through a course but unable to pay their fees having lost their only income.

The Winchester team received a request from a nursing and laboratory technician training school, to send a small team to help teach displaced South Sudanese students.

One such student, James, said: “I am 23 years old and a nursing student in year 3 at a health training institute, due to finish this year. I lost my parents when I was five years old and I grew up with my uncle. Just recently, due to insecurity in South Sudan, I lost my uncle.

"The college had to relocate from South Sudan to Uganda. On the way, as I walked through the bush to the border, I met 17 uniformed soldiers, who arrested and robbed me of all my possessions then left me tied up in the bush. Fortunately, someone looking for his cattle rescued me and I made it to Uganda where I am now a refugee and able to sit for my final exams and resume my studies.”

A trip to Uganda is planned for October, with the support of The Brickworks.

The charity will appreciate any support and donation to facilitate the trip and to send professionals to help people who have been displaced.

For more information contact: Dr Kordo Saeed, consultant microbiologist at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

For further information about The Brickworks or to send a donation, visit www.thebrickworks.org.uk