A Tauranga father has died while working for a charity overseas in Africa.

Richard Welch, of Papamoa, journeyed to South Sudan on March 6 to help build a maternity and paediatrics ward for the people of Tonj.

The ward was to aid the work of Kiwi doctors Jono and Destinee Macleod, who have been volunteering in the country since 2014, serving some of the poorest mothers and children in the world.

Around a week into the project, Richard became ill with what is locally referred to as ‘Tonj tummy', and suffered for 10 days with a diarrheal illness.

By March 25, the 57-year-old was on the mend and wrote about how he was looking forward to continuing full work on the project. However, on March 31 Richard collapsed and died after suffering a heart attack.

Since then, it's been an expensive and lengthy process to bring his remains home to New Zealand.

Richard's sister Sue Hodson says her brother's body first had to be flown out of Tonj on a chartered flight, at a cost of US$4000, as there are only regular flights out of Tonj once a month.

'He had to be taken to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, where his body was embalmed, before being taken to Nairobi in Kenya, where he could finally be cremated.”

His son Elijah, who flew to Nairobi to collect the ashes, finally returned on Sunday to Tauranga with his father's remains. The entire costs to bring Richard home have been around $15,000.

A Givealittle page has been set up to help cover those costs, as well as raise some money to help his children – three of whom had been living at home at the time of his death.

'The donations above $15,000 will be for the immediate living expenses of the children,” says Sue. 'We're hoping to raise enough to keep them going until Bastien turns 18 in May and they can begin thinking about their next steps.”

His niece Kimberley Wilson says Richard leaves behind a legacy of service and compassion for others, both here in the Bay of Plenty and globally from his years living in England and the USA, and from his service projects in Fiji, Russia and South Sudan.

'The plan in South Sudan was and still is to build a 20 bed clinic, with nine beds designated for maternity and 11 for paediatrics,” she says.

'The ward is to service the 17,000 people living in Tonj and approximately 5000 people living in the surrounding area, who still live in villages. The intention of Richard's project was to get the foundations and floor in place during his two month stay. The project now continues on and it is the intention of the Mission to name this ward ‘Richard's Ward'.”

Kimberley says on April 2, three days after Richard's death, a woman arrived to give birth.

'She was able to use a maternity waiting area that had been prepared by Destinee, with Richard fixing the roof, hanging curtains and building a door. The little boy, the first to be born there, has been named Richard in his honour.”

To make a donation to help with the costs of bringing Richard's remains home, and to help his surviving children, visit the Givealittle page here.

To find out more about what Richard was doing in South Sudan, visit the Macleods' Facebook page.