Our New Health Clinic in Mbita, Kenya!
We are just within a few days of opening a health clinic in Mbita, Kenya with the 30/30 Project and MED25 International! Currently, our on-the-ground partner, MED25, provides healthcare out of a small, rented facility. This larger, more centrally located health center will allow MED25 to increase and improve their health services and expand clinic hours. The building will be ready for occupancy on July 12th, and open to patients on July 14th!CfC has been working with MED25 since 2012, when we helped launch Phase I of their One Community Project, including the construction of a mortuary, water well, utility building, incinerator, and guard house. Proceeds from the mortuary subsidize quality healthcare for the community, helping to make it affordable for people in the Mbita District. This new clinic is located in the midst of a region with the highest prevalence of HIV in most of East Africa at 27%. Many of these are orphaned children who may have contracted HIV at birth. This district also suffers from the highest infant mortality rate in Kenya and extreme poverty. In addition to offering medical treatment, MED25 also focuses on prevention and education by training and employing Community Health Workers: these are often well-respected women in their communities who visit people in their homes, perform home health assessments for patients previously treated for malaria, and refer them to the health care facility should they need further attention. We are so excited that this clinic is almost complete! HUGE shout-out to our partner, MED25, for your commitment to improving access to healthcare and all the amazing work that you do within the Mbita community. Also, a HUGE thank you to CfC and 30/30 Project donors who helped us raise the funds needed to complete these projects. Together we can make a difference.
Meet Rael, one of MED25′s patients who will be treated at the new clinic…
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Masawa! Greetings! I am Rael Anygano Ouma. I am a mother. I am 51 years old. I am a hard worker. I am a widow. I am HIV Positive.I have chosen to live even though life has been hard. I discovered my HIV status in June of 2005. That was very tough news for me. Having been widowed since 2001, I had already been struggling to get my life back in order. As a woman and widow in Kenya, you battle with many things. Family members, village leaders, community members all have interest – either personal or cultural – in what happens to you and your belongings. You struggle particularly with land ownership issues and are easily kicked out of your land that you may have called “home” for many years. That was what happened to me! I was forced to leave my home I had lived with my husband and find a different place. I then worked very hard to buy a plot of land and to build a very small house…..MY house. The man that sold me the plot was very nice and I trusted him. Unfortunately he died and there was no official record of my land purchase. His surviving family had me removed from the property and the house that I had built. It was painful to not only be struggling with HIV but also to be homeless. It seemed like I had few choices but I chose to move on with my life as best as I could.One bright spot for me has been MED25! They offered me support during this rough time and continue to be my medical provider today. I live farther away from the clinic now but I travel there to be seen by my medical team who I know cares for me as a patient and as a person! They have the drugs I need to survive and treat me like I am just a regular person – not someone with a disease that to so many others has a negative stigma attached. MED25 is a blessing to me!