We are remembering and honoring John K. Yambasu, Bishop of The Sierra Leone Conference of the United Methodist Church, who died in a car accident on August 16, 2020. Bishop Yambasu was a church builder, a compassionate leader, and a faithful Christian champion in Africa.

Bishop Yambasu was also a believer of Impact Global Health Alliance Global’s mission – to make measurable and sustainable improvements in the health and wellbeing of the most vulnerable. He was a devoted supporter of our work in Sierra Leone, where we have been working since 2015. Sierra Leone has the 2nd highest child mortality rate globally, and women face a 1 in 23 chance of dying from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.

September 2015: Impact Global Health Alliance Global Executive Director Andrew Herrera and Program Manager for Africa Florence Amadi with Rev. Dr. John K. Yambasu at the launch of our Kuimei Project in Bo, Sierra Leone.

Bishop Yambasu understood the power and the impact that hope can bring to forgotten communities. Among his many contributions, he founded the Child Rescue Center to care for children whose families were left impoverished by more than a decade of civil war. In 2017, he said:

The dream was to provide hope for many children abandoned and languishing on the streets of Sierra Leone during the war. Most were either orphaned or displaced by the civil conflict.¹

For us, bringing hope through health has been the driver of our vision for a world free of suffering from treatable and preventable causes such as malnutrition, pneumonia, and childbirth complications.

Bringing hope through health is what we have been doing, thanks to supporters like Bishop Yambasu, since 1983.

Through in-country partnerships and advocacy from local leaders in Sierra Leon, we have been able to sustainably save women and children and impact the lives of over 4,000 people through prevention, health education, and relationships with existing health facilities.

We are grateful for Bishop Yambasu’s steadfast commitment to make this world a better place for the least fortunate. You will always have a very special place in our hearts.

To learn more about our work in Sierra Leon, go to Impact Global Health Alliance.org. You can also join our mission and save lives!

  • $15 provides five children with life-saving treatments for acute diarrhea.
  • $50 provides two Trained Traditional Midwives with Safe Delivery Kits.
  • $100 provides ten solar chargers for Community Health Volunteers.

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¹ Steele, Jeremy. Died: John K. Yambasu, Methodist Bridge-Builder, and African Leader. Christianity Today. https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/august/bishop-john-yambasu-dies-sierra-leone-umc-africa-protocol.html (Retrieved September 4, 2020).