A New clinic gives hope to Kawangware

A NEW CLINIC GIVES HOPE TO KAWANGWARE

In Kawangware, an urban slum situated about 10 km west of Nairobi city centre, a new health center was established with the mission to help the people without any hope to reach medical assistant.

Kermit Washington, a retired NBA star, after traveling several times to Africa, started this small clinic called “Ray of Hope Clinic and Community Centre” on 11th October 2004.

Washington is founder of the NGO Project Contact Africa with the mission of organizing volunteer doctors and nurses to provide medicine and treatment to slums such as Kibera and Kawangware.

The private clinic is open seven days a week, and offers medicine and first-aid supplies to Kawangware community for an accessible price.

One can wonder if they deny attending people who cannot pay the medical fee. “Not at all”, said Rosemary Simuyu, administrator of the Ray of Hope Clinic. “We help the people anyway; we do whatever we can do to change their cruel reality, but sometimes we do not have the equipment necessary to respond to some cases.” She finally said, “When you work for a community you will never have enough money to help all of them.”

Since October the clinic has helped over 900 patients who cannot afford medical treatment in other hospitals.

The Kawangware population leads to the spreads of diseases malaria, typhoid and cholera due to the poor hygiene and the inexistence of latrines. There are not litterbins and no responsibility to dispose garbage to maintain the environment safe and clean.

Washington is an alumni with honors from American University (AU) and since last October this University has launched a study-abroad program that enables students to intern with Project Contact Africa and to contribute in the alleviation of poverty and suffering in slum communities in Kenya.

The interns provide to the Kawangware population health education, especially advices on matters of hygiene and consumer food safety, encouraging them to make changes in their hygiene behaviour. Hygiene has such major effects on individuals' lifetime health. Volunteers visit homes, assisting patients who are extremely sick to reach the Clinic on their own. The interns have been visiting the fabricated out of corrugated iron sheets houses to take a census of diseases, and doing a HIV/AIDS campaign, providing condoms and giving tips how to prevent the disease.

As of today, they have registered 62 cases of HIV/AIDS who do not have access to anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs.

Seven employees collaborate with the clinic, working with low salaries that can barely cover the transport and the expenses to come every day to the clinic. Rosemary Simuyu said that the organization is motorized by the labor of volunteers and by the donors.

Grace Mann, an intern from AU is helping Rosemary since January managing the budge provided by AU and with the purchase of some basic medical equipment, such a generator for the Medical fridge to maintain the cold chain of the vaccines. Now they are prepared to start with a TB vaccine campaign.

Lucy Ndunda, is the Pharmacy technology in charge of the Pharmacy which is called in swahili “ Dawa ni hapa” that means “The medicine is here”. She organizes and classifies the drugs donated by Health Medic and by the NBA players.

She has to recycle glass bottles to prepare the cough medicine “Triphetamine”. Each glass bottle costs 2 Ksh 2, but sometimes they are not properly sterilized.

One of the main goals of this clinic is to aid the people to who are too late to go to the Hospital and have no other alternative than to be attended at the clinic.

“In an emergency I don’t have another place to go” said a mother of a child who was run over by a car just some minutes ago and immediately brought his son to the clinic.

Sometimes the commitment of the clinic with the community goes further and they give support as social workers. Four days after the clinic foundation, the first boy baby was born in the clinic. His mother called him Ray. She wanted to leave him in the garbage, but the nurses convinced her not to do so. Currently she volunteers with the clinic work and Ray is a healthy boy spoilt by the interns who volunteer in the clinic.

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Ray of Hope Clinic & Community Centre was established to assist 250.000 people who live in Kawangware. © Micaela Hierro

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Grace Mann, student of the American University cradles Ray in her arms. © Micaela Hierro