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Published: November 12th 2006
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Happy Weekend All. I enjoyed a lovely Sunday lunch today getting caught up with my friends Nej and Chotu Pabaris. They have lived in Kisumu over 30 years. The Pabaris were introduced to me by my golfing partner Sheila. They are an amazing and generous couple. Nej is the founder and inspiring leader of Ladies in Action - a local NGO that refurbishes public schools in partnership with local communities and holds weekly medical camps at schools to provide villagers with access to doctors and medication for a nominal charge - 5 ksh for children and 30 ksh for adults (8 and 48 cents, respectively). And if that is not enough, this wonder couple sponsor the care of 9 orphans - the youngest 5 and the oldest 14. Chotu owns and operates a hardware business - a very useful connection when renovating public schools. Chotu plans to retire in a couple of years and join his wife full time in charity work. It has been such an inspiration and blessing to meet Nej and Chotu.
Nej’s work has really impressed me because she works with the community in partnership. She only provides funds and resources when the community is equally
committed by their actions to their children’s health and education. So again her work stands out because she is working with the community and is working to support the public health and education systems. This is unlike other foreign NGOs who I have observed are working outside and around community and public systems.
I was reminded this afternoon of a day I spent with Nej’s team in September out in the field. I joined Sue, Emmie, Tobias, Nicholas-I, Whitcliffe and Nicholas II at their weekly Medical Camp. Whitcliffe and Nicholas-II are Kenyan doctors who for a nominal fee (2000 ksh or $32 dollars/day) provide their services to the camp. I had spent two afternoons previous with Tobias and Sue counting pills and decanting antibiotics and multi vitamins in syrup form into smaller bottles in preparation for the camp. This is a weekly activity. Medicine is purchased by Ladies in Action with donations they receive from private donors.
We saw over 450 patients, mostly children, that day. We set up shop in a school classroom. The public school - both nursery and primary has over 1000 students in attendance and was about an hour west of Kisumu along the
road to the Uganda border. The students and their families were the camp's clients that day. The medical camp has a 3-stage process. In stage I, Tobias and Nicholas-I conducted the pre-screen under a big mango tree. They jotted down symptoms on scraps of lined paper and administered de-worming medicine. Stage II involved a consult with the doctors who sat at two school desks in the classroom. Symptoms were assessed, a diagnosis made and medicine prescribed on another scrap of paper. Stage III was where the prescriptions were filled by Sue, Emmie and I. A typical child’s prescription looked like this: Syrp Amobil 1x3, Syrp Para 1x1, Syrp MV (multi-vitamin) 1x1, eye and ear drops, and sulphur cream. For an adult we typically saw: Tab Brufin 2x3, Tab Amoxy 2x3, Tab Flagyl 1x3, Tab Folic Acid 1x3 and Nyambo Cream (for aches and pains) . I learned that doctor’s bad handwriting is universal. I also had to get the hang of the dosage lingo - for example 2x3 means 2 pills 3 times a day for 5 days - so total number of pills is 30! The doctors also had short hand for meds. So factoring this all in --
it took me awhile to get the hang of it - all the while terrified that I would give the patients the wrong medicine and make them even sicker. Sue and Emmie were great decoders and a big help to me. So armed with a Swahili cheat sheet, I would take the prescription, fill it and then describe to the patient with my very broken swahali the medication prescribed and the dosage. So yes I can now add pharmacist to my list of qualifications -- quite scary when you think about it! But it is a choice of care or no care in the cases of these 450 patients. So thank heaven for Mrs. Pabaris and her team. I should also mention that we started screening and dispensing at about 10 am. We took a quick break for lunch: meat stew, ugali (polenta like) and sukomawicki (steamed kale) -- local cuisine prepared for us by the teachers. And we wrapped the camp up at about 3 pm - not because we had finished with the patient queue - but because we had run out of medicine. What a terrible thing to have to say to a sick child or parent
that we have no more medicine! I shake my head, am haunted by their faces and will never take our Canadian healthcare system for granted again!
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