KENYA: What images comes to your mind when you hear this name? The Serengeti? The green-blanketed veldt stretching to the horizon? Long-limbed Gazelles, Wildebeest, a Water Buck, or Dik Dik, a Lion family? The community watering hole with an endless variety of mammals and fowl on the periphery? Is that what comes to your mind?
Not!
Not in this part of Kenya (click here for map), that is. And not Kajire. This little village is on the western edge of the great Tsavo desert, and just off the footpath that rises to the Sigala Hills. If you were to look in the new edition of the survey map of this area produced by the Government of Kenya, you might see the "Kajire Dispensary" identified (on these maps even 'service stations' are shown).
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This is the little five-room clinic that was funded by the Bush Hospital Foundation, of Jersey Island, the creation of MARCO member Ken Kirk-Bailey (GJ0KKB), and his close friend and associate Dr. Mike Marks. The clinic was built entirely by villagers, with materials supplied by the BHF and MediShare International (see The Kajire Story, Part 1 & Part 2). |
Note: This was the direct result of a casual conversation by two-way amateur radio with 9X5KP at the Mugonero Hospital, Rwanda, in June 1989
(See: "MediShare - Beginnings")
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In my conversation by amateur radio with Ken in January, he updated me on the status of the clinic. You will recall from the earlier stories on the clinic's beginnings, that the government donated the land, and committed to paying for at least one salaried nurse if the clinic could be built. The clinic is now maturing and has a government funded staff of, not one, but two indigenous nurses. There is now a small accessory building (also BHF-funded) adjoining the clinic which serves as a house for the nursing staff. An American teacher in the Peace Corps is currently living and working in the village. Mike and Ken continue to manage the little dispensary, aided by David Evans, an importer of pharmaceuticals living in the town of Voi, some 20 km. distant.
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The clinic is visited about once a month by an itinerant doctor. It continues to treat an average of 50-60 walk-in patients a day from the local population of over 8000. That is the good news.
Now for the bad news - - - really bad.
Not unlike Somalia, this part of Kenya is beginning the third year of drought and famine (Somalia borders Kenya on the east). There has been no rain in over two years. This evening, the McNeil Lehrer News hour reported that there are eight countries in east Africa including Kenya that are suffering severe famine. The President of Kenya, Mr. Mo, informed the United Nations World Food Program some eighteen months ago, that Kenya "needed no more food" as he bragged that his country was now "self-sufficient." Therefore outside shipments of food were cut off and have not been restored.
The villagers, being agrarian, have not had water for their crops in over two years. No water, therefore no crops, and no money to buy food. Even in normal times Kajire's sole water supply comes from two - only two - faucets fed from a mountain stream miles away. There are no wells. There are no lakes, no reservoirs, no catchment basins, no "run-off," no water storage. What water they do get, they use immediately. Even their crops and gardens depended on these two village water faucets.
The Bush Hospital Foundation's Kajire Dispensary responded to this famine in the most direct way possible. It immediately undertook to feed the 8000 residents, including many children. One meal per day is being provided to all residents, and two meals a day to each child! The program is managed by the Village Food Committee which decreed that all children between 4-12 years of age should be fed first and at school. The Committee reasoned that this would also keep the kids in school. This diet consists almost entirely of maize purchased and shipped in from Nairobi. In addition to the maize, the children are given a multi-vitamin supplement. The populace does not have enough money to buy even a few vegetables. Even with this level of support, this little village loses on average two children a week.
This food program costs approximately $1500 per month (USD), money raised by Ken and Mike on their small island of Jersey thousands of miles away. This program has been in effect since September and will be extended as needed through February at least and into the future if the drought continues and if the public continues to support the Foundation's efforts.
January, 1993