Ambulance funded by Comic Relief for the Group Hospital in Hargeisa, Somaliland

Ambulance funded by Comic Relief, Hargeisa, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

This ambulance was shown on BBC this evening as part of their Comic Relief effort. It is housed at the Hargeisa Group Hospital in Hargeisa, where I was born and was provided by funds raised by Comic Relief. They also showed film of the hospital wards, patients and staff, showing how the money raised helps people in Africa. It was Billy Connolly who was there, wandering around the ward, saying that Somaliland was not the healthiest country in the world. Hmmmm... maybe not the healthiest place, and it coukld certainly do with better medical care but it is certainly not the unhealthiest country in the world. So great to hear the name Somaliland being mentioned.

It is a great effort by the comedians of the UK to raise money for good causes in the UK and Africa and there are many great comedy moments created during a long evening if fund raising on BBC. We had Catherine Tate serving coffee and biscuits to a busy Tony Blair in 10, Downing Street as a young job seeker and later we can look forward to the cast of Little Britain.

One less nice aspect of Comic Relief is the way they use images of sick Africans to boost the amount of money being pledged, combined with the promise that the money raised will help these people get better. To a certain extent it will, but these images encourage the idea that that everything in Africa is bad and that Africans are waiting for our help to make them better. A more balanced approach would, of course, be better.