You lace up your REBOKS. You pack your fanny pack and back pack for the trail but decide to leave the major portion of your gear on your bunk at the Sigala Lodge. As you strap on your backpack and sleeping bag the sun is just coming up through the glass-less window. You head south and slightly east on the already dusty trail, pass through the VOI gate where you pick up the trail that parallels the "VOI SISAL ESTATES." It is called a "Motorable Track" on the map of the TSAVO EAST NATIONAL PARK, but is more easily negotiable with your REBOKS than it is with MICHELINS.
You are now at 1000 feet elevation and you begin to climb slowly to 2000 feet. As you walk, and assuming your mind is alert and your eyes are clear, you might see Wart Hogs, a Wildebeest, or if you're really quick, a Klipspringer or the sprite and elusive Dik Dik.
You're in KENYA (click here for map) of course on the edge of the TSAVO DESERT. In about five hours, as the sun climbs towards its zenith, the trail slowly bends to the south, a foot path "T's" to your right. It is now early evening and you look for a smooth and level site to spread your sleeping bag.
The sun wakes you up on the second morning. You brush your teeth (naturally) and are on the trail again. It is now little more than a footpath and climbing steadily toward the crest of the Sigala Hills on the horizon to the west. Toward noon you reach 4000 feet, and in the distance you hear the voices of children at play. A couple of dark-skinned young women with baskets of produce on their heads, pass you on the trail. You are now approaching the little village of KAJIRE, your destination.
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Here then, is the site of a new little village school, founded two years ago by the daughter of Bishop of the Church of England, a young teacher, Jane Barham. Here too, is the site of a brand new little "Health Center" just completed. |
Dr. Mike Marks, a physician on the Island of Jersey, while on a trip to Central Africa only last year (1990) met Bishop Barham, who told him about his daughter's school in this remote village. Mike is one of the founders of the Bush Hospital Foundation (MediShare International's European Partner) along with MARCO member Ken Kirk-Bailey, (Amateur Radio, GJOKKB). Mike had gone to Africa, specifically to Rwanda to inspect and visit the Mugonero Hospital (See story: "Rwanda: Then") where he went to visit the hospital to verify its needs, especially for an X-ray, and an Ultrasound machine, both of which were urgently needed. (Note: The BHF and Ken personally installed a complete X-ray machine last fall. MediShare is shipping an Ultrasound to Mugonero Hospital in June). Mike spent a week or so at Mugonero, but he was deeply moved by the story of the young British school teacher. So instead of returning home immediately as was his plan, he changed his itinerary and went to Kenya to meet Jane and to assess the needs of the village and surrounding area for a health facility. On that visit, Mike determined that the villagers (over 5000 in the immediate vicinity) must travel on foot over 20 km to the nearest road and another 30 km to the nearest small hospital, by the trail you had traversed the past two days.
Health Centers are staffed by health workers (not doctors) - midwives and nurses when available. Apart from the treatment of acute illness and the provision of essential drugs and a primary obstetric service, health centers are deeply involved in maternal and child health care, family planning and child vaccination as well as heath education, matters of sanitation, clean water supply and instructing mothers in oral re-hydration therapy to counter one of the great child killers in the tropics - diarrhea.
At Christmas in 1989, while in England, Jane approached the Bush Hospital Foundation for assistance in financing and equipping a health center for the village and surrounding area. Jane, herself, is studying and writing a textbook in Swahili and she used up her own publisher's advance for the project. She had secured the government's promise to dedicate some land near the village for the site and provide a resident health worker, hopefully a nurse, in the event the clinic could be built. The Bush Hospital Foundation approved the project and initially donated 4000£ of the estimated 10,000£ needed to build it. In the next two weeks of May, 1990, Kajire villagers raised 100£ themselves. This, in rural Africa, where 95% of the population do not earn a wage and the few who do, earn an average of 4£ per week Their efforts, however, extend to providing all of the labor free.
Trucks, with four wheel drives, were able to bring donated building block materials to the bottom of the hill. Villagers then had to transport the sacks of concrete and all other building materials on their heads up the hill to the building site. The little four-room clinic is now completed (June, 1991).
The BHF is in the process of securing additional donations to complete the project and to provide basic medical equipment for the little KAJIRE HEALTH CENTER. The acquisition of equipment presents some unusual problems - refrigeration (for serums, medicines, etc.) for example. Since there is no electricity, a solar refrigerator is planned. But this alone costs 3000£. (The story of this modest project brings vividly to mind the life and experience of the late Dr. Glen Eschtruth (9Q5GE), who served so gallantly and for so many years in a little hospital in Zaire {formerly the Congo}. Many MARCO members helped Glen with donations of equipment, supplies and funds. Glen was forcibly removed from his home one night by mercenaries and his murdered body was found in a shallow roadside ditch six weeks later.)
Note: I am indebebted to Ken Kirk-Bailey and the Bush Hospital Foundation's Newsletter for much of the above information.