Hawa Orphanage
Josphat Kanui has a strong relationship with the Hawa Boy's Home where so-called street children, typically with unknown parents, are adopted and provided with housing, education, and skilled trade training. We have made several visits to the orphanage donating educational supplies, uniforms, performing well child checkups, deworming, and on our most recent visit donated a pregnant dairy cow resulting in two milk producing cows for the orphanage.
Water Filter Connection
When we decided to pursue deworming, we explored ways to decrease the rate of reinfection. During a presentation to the Soroptimist of Loomis Basin, one of the members gave us the name of a group they had donated to in the past and felt that they could be of assistance to us. The group was the For One Another Foundation. They provide a simple and highly effective water filtration package designed for areas that clean water is not available. They were very supportive of our efforts and assisted us with providing their system to the local schools and Kagaa Dispensary. We trained the Outreach Healthcare Volunteers on the assembly and maintenance of the system. We have distributed them to the schools and monitor to ensure that they are in working order and the proper maintenance is being done.
Eyeglass Distribution
For Unimedlink's 2014 trip we were donated 300 pairs of prescription eyeglasses not all of which were useable. The need for these glasses was overwhelming; we distributed 213 pairs and sadly had to turn people away due to time constraints and availability of matching prescriptions to patients. We continued with eyeglasses in following years and expanded distribution to several secondary schools. A memorable moment was a farmer nearly in tears stating that he could see his farm clearly across the valley for the first time in his adult life.
Kenya
The Medical Clinics
We provide basic medical screening (mostly hypertension and diabetes), promote health education and disease prevention. We are fortunate to be able to administer available medications provided by the dispensary.
The Medical Camp attracts people that often don’t visit the clinic. This gives the staff the opportunity to provide their services to a greater number of people than usual. These include updating medical records and vaccinations, family planning, cervical cancer screenings and HIV counseling and testing.
The Outreach Healthcare Volunteers
We are very pleased to have made this connection during our 2014 trip. These individuals provide a wide variety of services to the community. Most importantly they go out into the community, farm to farm, door to door to educate people about HIV, how to avoid, why be tested, and how to seek treatment.
The Schools
When we first visited the schools, we asked the headmistress/headmaster what things we could do that would benefit the children. The first was the deworming issue; the second was a heartfelt request for basic school materials for the students: pencils, rulers, writing tablets, and storybooks. In 2014 we provided some of the much-needed materials. We duplicated this effort in subsequent years and eventually provided the schools with simple libraries. Please see our photos.
Birthing Center at Kagaa Dispensary
We have adopted the Birthing Center at the Kagaa Clinic in order to assist the Clinic staff with their delivery of services. In 2013 there were 100-recorded live births at the center. This was projected to be only 40% of the births in the area. The other 60% were delivered at home. This placed 60% of the Mothers and Newborns outside the Center's services causing them to potentially miss prenatal care, well baby follow-up, and early childhood vaccinations which are provided for free. It was felt that the mothers were not coming in because the Center had no blankets or pillows, the room had no heat source, and there were no newborn clothes.
In 2013 blankets, pillows, and newborn clothes were secured for the Center. The Clinic staff had painted and touched up areas that needed maintenance.
In 2014 we donated 2 birthing beds, maternity pads, and newborn clothes to further the Center's goals. The 2014 statistics show an increase in the number of births at the center.
Kagaa Clinic
Sam’s family has a history of service, volunteering their time and providing financial support for their community. Sam's father, Simon Kaniu, provided financing and other assistance in constructing the Kagaa clinic in 1972. He continued to support the clinic and, along with Sam’s older brother Josphat, was instrumental in the construction of the Birthing Center at the Kagaa clinic.
The Kagaa clinic is in the Lari division, Kiambu district in central Kenya approximately 50 kilometers from Nairobi. Although the distance from the city is small, it is quite rural and connected by rutted dirt roads making travel slow and at times difficult. The local economy is farming, including tea plantations, dairy, and basic food crops. Prior to the Kagaa clinic's construction, the local population would have to walk to a small clinic with limited resources 10 miles away. If women wanted a delivery center, it would be another 25 miles. Most people still walk several miles to the clinic with limited options of travel either on back of a motorbike (boda boda) or infrequent van (matatu).
Our team has done mass screening for hypertension and diabetes as well as offered medical advice and treatment for a variety of conditions teaming with the staff of the Kagaa clinic and utilizing its small dispensary. We also added a medical camp at the minimally resourced Kagwee clinic.
Our medical camps attract many patients who were unaware of the no charge services offered at the clinics and with our encouragement we hope they will return for ongoing care.
Over the years we have seen the local government and the clinic staff become more engaged with new buildings, landscaping, walkways (on a small scale compared to the West) showing pride and dedication to making Kagaa one of the best rural clinics.