Wazungus on TV!

Thursday 18 August 2011

"Most volunteers stick to working in the city of Kisumu. How have you been able to come to Kirindo and how have you helped the local population?"

So began our interview with 'Fred' from Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), a national TV network invited to Kirindo by the redoubtable Margaret Kawala, to promote her work in developing health services for the village.

Margaret's plan was for Jennie and I to return to Kirindo to host a medical camp, based at the village health clinic. Plan Kenya, CADIF and Global Footsteps contributed a large supply of medicines and two nurses were deployed from the nearest hospital to come and dispense the drugs.

All day a trail of patients arrived for their free medicine and most were given a standard package of antimalarias, panadol, antiworming drugs and antibiotics. The nurse explained: "It is often difficult to diagnose the problems of some patients because the symptoms of several conditions are so similar, so we just give them this package and it usually tackles their problem. The diet of the people in this village is so poor that they are likely to have worms [we have learnt that the distended stomach seen so often on TV news reports is caused by worms] and this can be rectified easily in one appointment."

Although Kirindo has a building for a health clinic it does not possess the funds to pay for permanent staff: previously nurses had assisted two days a week but the funding for this has recently been withdrawn. This means villagers have to walk a substantial distance to the nearest clinic, crossing a river. There have been many cases of people drowning or being swept away in their attempt to return home. Jennie and I have been so moved by the plight of these people in Kirindo that we have pledged to try to raise funds when back in the UK to help finance a more satisfactory health service.

Rosalind Camp