SARAH BONES
Dan Kelly, a medical student from Valley Forge, examines an amputee at the Kono District clinic. Kelly worked to establish a clinic in Sierra Leone's "blood diamond" district. He also launched a program for malnourished children in the Port Loko District.
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Healing the horror
At his clinic near Sierra Leone's diamond mines, a medical student from Valley Forge confronts the desolation of war and want.
It's been a long trip from rowing on the Schuylkill for Malvern Prep to walking the hills of the blood-diamond district. Kelly has had patients - one of them an 8-year-old girl - die in his arms.
Is he still an optimist?
"I came to Sierra Leone a naive idealist," Kelly says. "Since I've been here, I've become a practical idealist. You think you can save the whole world, but you just have to pick your part."
For More Information
Global Action Foundation
Phone: 610-933-5261
Web: www.go-act.org
Mail: Box 55,
Valley Forge, Pa. 19481
A Sierra Leone slide show by photographer Sarah Bones, video interview with Dan Kelly, and how you can support his work: http://go.philly.com/health
