In response to the growing Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, the Rotary Club of Berrima District and its corporate partner Ramsay Health Care made a $5000 donation to help authorities fight the disease.

The money will go towards building an isolation ward at the Children's Hospital in Bo, Sierra Leone.

Until recently Bo, a town of 654,000 people, had been free of the virus but a situation report published by the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation on September 7 recorded 16 deaths.

The project is being sponsored by the Rotary Club of Turramurra, which will receive the donation.

Sierra Leone has suffered many years of civil war and political instability, leaving this small but densely populated country in a destitute state with frightening child mortality and virtually no health care in rural areas.

Rotary Club of Berrima District president Allan Cupitt said the donation was a fine example of two Rotary clubs working together to improve the health services in developing countries.

Berrima Rotary also operates the project Medical Aid for Oceania and Worldwide, a joint venture between the club and Ramsay Health Care.

Details: secretary@berrimarotary.org.au