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A doctor is leaving an SAR hospital to practise medicine in war-torn Liberia.

 Dr Alexandra Ho Siu-fong, a medical officer in the obstetrics and gynaecology department at Princess Margaret Hospital, will travel to the West African nation in early February as a volunteer for the aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres.

 After a two-week orientation programme in the Netherlands she plans to work for six months in Liberia.

 Dr Ho, 27, is the sixth medical volunteer to go to Africa with the organisation since it opened an office in Hong Kong in 1994.

 She said the mission fulfilled one of her ambitions.

 'Since qualifying as a doctor I have wanted to work in developing countries. But I had to gain some experience and financial support before going to work there.

 'In Hong Kong, I may just see one patient with malaria but in Africa I will encounter thousands.'  Hong Kong spokesman for Medecins Sans Frontieres, Justine Geldard, said: 'If you are the sole practitioner in a refugee camp you are exposed to much more than a practitioner in a standard hospital in a very short period.'  The seven-year civil war in Liberia, which killed 150,000, ended last year but there are still many dangers.

 'There are armed gangs and Alexandra will be made aware in her training of security procedures like radioing in before she leaves the house, radioing in when she reaches the hospital and informing people where she is at all times of day,' Ms Geldard said.

 Medecins Sans Frontieres provides medical care in Third World and other regions in need of emergency relief. Last year the Hong Kong branch raised $16.6 million, of which more than $10 million went to projects on the mainland.



Doctor braving Liberian dangers to fulfil ambition