Kenya
01/01/2009: in the future, please use http://www.karibuni.be
(Gelieve in de toekomst deze link te gebruiken)
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Hit the button “Photo’s” to see my pictures
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Thursday 30/10/2008:
On the flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi I met Alida (Canada), Natalia (Czech Republic), Sarah (HQ Germany), Svitlana (HQ Germany) and René (Netherlands).
We arrived at the hotel around 10 pm. Thanasis (Greece, team leader), Yvonne (Germany) and Dietmar (Germany) were already there.
The external trainers (Mathias and John) joined us for supper.
Friday 31/10:
Around 9 Nayrobis (US) arrived.
While waiting for the other volunteers, we visited the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trusts ‘orphans’ project.
They raise orphaned elephants and rhinos in a long term project.
Lucy (Kenya) joined us.
After that we visited the Karen Blixen museum (Out Of Africa film).
After lunch we went to a giraffe park.
In the evening Shinta (Singapore), Lori (US), Jaelim (South Korea) and Frank (Germany) arrived.
At the end of the evening meal also volunteer number 13, Abigail (US), arrived safely.
With the team complete, we could go to rest because we were expected to be in the training room already at 08:30.
Saturday 1 and Sunday 2/11:
Maina (DHL Kenya) joined us.
The goal of this intercultural training was to become 1 firm team working for the same cause.
And secondly we received a profound insight in the Kenyan culture. We learned that we should not try to convince Kenyans with ‘facts and figures’.
Monday 3/11:
After breakfast, leaving Nairobi, flying to Mombasa.
We received a warm welcome from Rosemary and Elizabeth (DHL Mombasa).
They joined us on our visit to the Kwale hospital.
The equipment looked old and rusty (because of the high humidity), but we were told that the new operating theater was nearly ready (2 new buildings were under construction).
The planned courtesy call to the District Commissioner in Kwale town was hosted by the District Officer 1.
It was a warm welcome, showing a lot of respect from both sides.
The daily briefing at the hotel (which for security reasons, has much more luxury than we would need) was about tomorrow’s start of the MALEZI BORA November 2008 campaign and the launch of the DHL / UNICEF Volunteering Program 2008.
See you tomorrow morning for the departure at 07:15 !
Tuesday 4/11:
Back to the Kwale hospital for the briefing by District Medical Officers from Kwale, Kinango and Msambweni districts.
Our first day in the field !
We met the Malesi Bora promo team (road show).
We walked behind their truck and distributed flyers that explained the Malesi Bora project (an initiative from the Ministry of Health, supported by Unicef, DHL and other partners), to promote the use of routine health services for mother and child in all health facilities.
Then we drove to the school in Kwale town, Baraza ground (nearly 800 pupils).
We helped the road show team to build a tent (sun roof for the officials) and also their stage for the educative entertainment (awareness on Malezi Bora).
We also assisted the health workers with the baby weighing (incl. nursing vitamin A) and with the distribution of medicine (paracetanol, de-worming tablets,…), packing them from bulk to individual portions.
The fact that also the local radio had made promotion for this initiative, made that we received many mothers with their under-5 children. That was also the reason why we ran out of some of the tablets. But on the regular consultation in the hospital and the medical centers, people could get this medicine later.
It broke my heart when we had to leave the site before the task of the day was fully completed, but the de-briefing at 7 pm (followed by the evening meal) had to be done.
The hot weather (30°C) and the high humidity had made it a tiring day.
Tomorrow at 07:15 is a new day in the field !
Wednesday 5/11:
Our second day in the field.
Because many projects had to be covered, we splitted up in 2 groups.
Group 1 (Lori, Jae, Sarah, Abigail, Natalia, Maina and I) went to the Kwale hospital to pick up 2 health workers.
Then we drove to the Kinango District Hospital using an elephant’s corridor. The doctor showed us his hospital. One of the patients was a mother who delivered twins the day before. Together with the doctor we went to the Kinango District Office to meet the District Officer 1 (DO1), madam KOMEN, for a courtesy call.
In the meantime our mini bus went to a repair center to change the flat tire. I was surprised that we only had one flat tire using this very bumpy bush road.
We continued our journey via a small village where we stopped to eat our lunch packet. I asked one of the health workers, who was in our mini bus, if I could take a picture of a woman who was using a very old sewing machine. Her husband wanted to get money, but the health worker could convince the woman that my picture would be used in fund raising campaigns by the DHL Unicef 2008 Ambassadors (us) in our countries all over the world. That it would be used to show how great the needs are in Kenya.
Around that time we learned from the radio news that the Kenyan president had declared the following day (6th Nov.) as a national public holiday because Obama (a Kenyan) had won the president elections in the USA.
All Kenyans were full of joy since this morning was announced that Obama will be sitting in the White House in the coming years.
By 12:30 we arrived at the school in the Mwangea community / Samburu / Kinango District. About 800 pipils were waiting for us. Hundreds of mothers with children between 1 and 5 (the focus of the Unicef campaigns) were queuing up for the medical examination by 2 local health workers.
The weight of the children and which medicine they got, was marked on their personal follow up card, carefully kept by the mothers.
Part of our team was tasked to measure the contour of the children’s upper arm and with a measuring tape, which indicated if the upper arm was according to the standard (green), dramatically under the standard (red), or in the middle (yellow). In the 2 hours that we measured, we handled over 100 kids. About 80 % was OK (green), but 20 % was too thin / light weighed (yellow).
In the meantime the other part of our team assisted in the “kitchen”, where mothers were trained on how to prepare a proper lunch for their small children.
By 3 pm we said hello to the director of the school (he has 8 teachers, 8 classes, for his 800 pupils…).
At 06:30 pm, we were back in the hotel.
07:00 pm: the de-briefing of today and the briefing for the next day.
We discussed if it was worth to drive 7 hours in total to visit a community for only 3 hours. But we all agreed that the communities at far distance also need our support (showing interest in their lives). Some of the mothers, when they are due to give birth, also have to travel that far (walking, on a bike, or in an ambulance on the bumpy bush roads) to reach the nearest District Hospital (local medical centers are at shorter distance).
08:30 pm: supper
09:30 pm: upload of the pictures on my internet pages
00:30 am: writing this diary
01:00 am: to sleep
Thursday 6/11:
06:30 am: out of bed
Today we split up in 3 groups (as discussed in last night’s briefing).
I was assigned to team 1: going to MTEZA (1,5 hr drive)
(Team 2: going to Kilimangondo / 4 hrs drive)
(Team 3: going to Mbita / 3 hrs drive)
At 08:00 Shinta (team leader), Lucy, Alida, Sarah, Thanasis and I went to the Kwale District Hospital to pick up Frank GURO (the deputy District Public Health Officer) and 2 other Health Workers. The rest of the Health Workers would join us in 2 Ministry of Health pick up trucks.
4 jobs to be done:
1) help the Health Workers (Mike, Simon, Said and Moha) with the VCT-Voluntary Counseling and Testing (HIV & AIDS). Alida joined them.
2) de-worming: I joined Frank to write down children’s names (focus 1 to 5 years old) and their age and then give them the medicine.
3) Weighing the kids and give them the vitamin A plus other medicine (on doctor’s prescription). Shinta and Lucy assisted.
4) Pharmacy: help the medicine distribution (on doctor’s prescription) by counting the number of tablets needed. Some tablets were needed per 9, others per 12, 20 or 30. Sarah and Thanasis assisted.
Since de-worming was not so much work, I changed from there to the weighing of the kids (where a very long queue was making the weighers pretty stressed.
The small kids were “hooked” onto a scale by means of short pants hanging on a ribbon.
Most of the mothers could not even read their kids’ names from the personal medical card. And so, near the end of the afternoon, some mothers were holding other kids’ medical card. This is one of the reasons why it is very important that the Health Workers speak the local language (Swahili for the Kwale District).
On the way home, all of a sudden, our mini bus refused to keep running. That is why we stepped into the back of one of the Ministry of Health’s pick up trucks to continue our return to the Kwale District Hospital.
Although arrangements were made to pick us up from there, to go back to our hotel, we had to wait for about an hour. And instead of being at the hotel by 5 or 6 pm, we arrived at 07:30.
In the meantime we had learned again that our European way of planning things does not work in Africa.
08:00 pm: supper
09:00 pm: de-briefing & briefing for tomorrow and the preparing of the give-aways (material that was collected by the Volunteers before coming to Kenya).
Friday 07/11:
Team 2 was going to TRIBE (1,5 km drive) to visit 5 households with breastfeeding babies & under 5 children.
The task was to check / supervise health kits and interact with family members.
(The 2 other teams were going to MALEDI and NDAVAYA to perform the same task)
At 07:15 we (René, Sarah, Lori, Yvonne and I) left the hotel for the Kwale District Hospital to pick up Faith (Ministry of Health supervisor) and Bernard (Unicef consultant).
Close to Tribe we would also have to pick up John (in MKONGANI, which is about 4km before arriving in Tribe).
Arriving there, John (the local hospital director) assigned one of his Community Health Workers, Hassan KOI, to join us.
My (team leader’s) welcome words: “We come from all over the world to support your Health Workers. That means that we are here to understand your needs and that we can transfer that knowledge to the people in our countries in order to raise more funds for Unicef.”
Faith, Bernard and Hassan speak the local language (Swahili) and that made it possible to talk to the families that we were visiting.
Although they had been informed of our arrival, every mother was very shy at the start. But after Bernard had explained who we were and what we came to do, they became more open and were prepared to answer all our questions.
These families were selected by the local Community Health Workers as being good examples of breast feeding mothers.
Till now we had seen many children in schools, making fun. Today we went to see where they come from, their family. Most of these families earn less than 1 US dollar (70 euro cent) per day.
That is why many of these kids are undernourished. On top of that comes the malaria. Parents are supposed to use bed nets, but often they are told by the local witch doctors that these nets contain (look like) ghosts.
At the end of each family visit we handed out the health kits (flower, oil, rice …) and small give-a-ways (ball point pens, key holders and some clothes).
After the 4th visit I got so depressed because got every time the same story: food that was not well balanced, medicine that was not correctly purchased for the district hospitals or the local health centers (due to ignorance) and the lack of clean water. I wished we could do more. At least we were doing something, by being there, listening to their needs.
After the assignment (end of next week) we will be able to transfer all the knowledge that we had gained to our countries and so we will be able to convince more people to donate money to UNICEF. Because these people (and other NGO’s) are really making the difference for a lot of poor people all over the world.
The previous night and today until midday, it had been raining pretty hard. A lot of mud all over the sandy roads that we were using. And I felt very happy that the 2 water tanks that I had experienced yesterday would be filled with clean water. I strongly had the feeling that my late daughter Annick, up there in heaven, had made the rain falling all over the district. For us in the North, water is so accessible that we cannot imagine what it means for people who do not have it. Who have to take it from a source, or even a muddy pool, and have to carry it in a bucket, for several kilometers, to their house (hut). For them, having water available is live. not having it means sickness and death.
It was a shocking day for us, the DHL-UNICEF Ambassadors 2008.
Saturday 8/11:
At 08:00 we drove to the MSAMBWENI District Hospital.
We met 2 young artists and all together we painted new mural paintings on the walls of one of the waiting areas for mothers and children.
Some of my colleagues had a really amazing (hidden?) painter’s talent.
It was an emotional day off for all of us.
After supper, half of the team went out to the Obama Beach Party in one of the local hotels. But this tired writer chooses for an early night sleep, after looking at the digital pictures taken so far.
Tomorrow, a day off for all of us.
3 options suggested:
– 8 am: scuba diving
– 10 am: visit to Mombasa
– an easy day at the hotel’s white Indian Ocean beach.
I choose for option 2, the big city of Mombasa. You might get to see it only once in your live time.
My first 8 hr sleep in a week might come through.
Sunday 09/11:
The alarm was set to 08:45 (instead of 6 am in the past week), but I was already awake at 07:45.
At 10:30 (African time is always half an hour later as planned) after a good breakfast, we (Lori, Dietmar, Lucy, Yvonne, Maina, Thanasis and I) left for Mombasa (1 hr drive).
First we went to buy several colorful KIKOYS.
Then we drove to a handcraft community.
Dozens of handcraft workers create wooden souvenirs and they sell it in a huge shop which is located next to the “work camp”. They announced that DHL Services are available (to ship the large pieces).
For 10.000 Kenyan Shillings (about 100 Euro) I had a lot of souvenirs for my relatives.
After that we went to the HALLE PARK to see monkeys, giraffes, turtles, fishes, birds and crocodiles.
by the end of the visit I nearly fell asleep with my back against a giant turtle.
Tomorrow we will do a bike race of about 30 km (theme: “Healthy Living”), on bumpy roads, together with 12 local housemothers.
Monday 10/11:
07:30 (plus half an hour) we drove to Mwangulu Trading Centre for the start of the bike race.
The plan is to ride the bikes to Mgombezi (about 14 km) and back to the starting point.
Group up people into 3 teams of 4 local women and 2 or 3 DHL Volunteers.
We will ride 12 new (locally purchased and paid by DPWN) and 12 used bikes.
The petrol for the “broom wagon” and the stand by Ambulance is also paid by DPWN.
The first 6 local women will get a new bike each.
The other 6 women would get a female goat each.
The other 6 new bikes will be donated to the nearby Health facilities to support outreaches (to give medical and family support in the remote areas).
I did only the single distance. For the return I handed over my bike to a colleague volunteer (who did only the return).
No need to tell that the 12 local women arrived before the DHL volunteers.
After the speeches of the officials (about the goals of Malezi Bora and the cooperation between Unicef and DHL) and of Father Joseph (a pastor who is married to a woman named Maria) who seems to be the main person driving this community forward in an amazingly passionate way), the local women got their prizes.
At 07:00 pm we had our usual de-briefing (about today) and the briefing (about tomorrow).
We welcomed the team that would film us during the coming 4 days. Also a professional experienced photographer Neil Thomas) and a German (Diethelm Straube) and a Kenyan journalist joined us for the rest of the week.
Tuesday 11/11:
At 07:30 we went to LUKORE. Together with the 2 journalists and the photographer. The film crew was waiting for the arrival of their equipment.
Volunteers participate in the launch of a community group by the name “Hope for Children and Youth” and Donate 8 Sowing machines
Hope for Children & Youth, it’s a Self Help Group which was established in 2006 to deals with Child Protection and Girl Child Education issues, with operation coverage in Kubo division.
Hope for Children & Youth has so far secured 30 children from child abuse and violence. The group has managed to support 10 children by sending them back to schools & youth polytechnic Centres; 5 girls in secondary schools, 1 girl in secure centre, 1 boy in Rehabilitation Centre, & 3 girls in primary schools.
Youth; Supported 14 youth by sending them to various Youth Polytechnic Centres; 11 teenage mothers & 3 boys. 7 teenage mothers completed 2 years course in tailoring & dress making & 7 still studying.
The group mobilize some funds from members & well-wishers and additional funds from Plan International and other NGOs to cover school fees for the secured children & youth.
Activities for the day
o Advocacy on Child protection through educative entertainments; songs, poems and plays
o Speeches from governmental officials, NGOs, community and spiritual leaders and women leaders
o DHL / UNICEF speech and present supplies / donations to Hope for Children & Youth.
o Football match (for girls only): DHL against a Lukore primary school team
Donations:
DHL / UNICEF volunteers will donate 8 sowing machines for the group to start tailoring classes for children & youth secured and other out of school youth.
Wednesday 12/11:
07:30 to TRIBE
Malezi Bora Road show & Conduct Outreach (2)
o All volunteers working with road show team and at the same time work with Health workers & CHWs conduct last outreach
o Volunteers assist; growth monitoring, health talks, interact & interview mothers. Working with Health Workers (HC) & CHWs
Malezi Bora Road show & Conduct Outreach (3)
o All volunteers working with road show team and at the same time work with Health workers & CHWs conduct last outreach
o Volunteers assist; growth monitoring, health talks, interact & interview mothers. Working with Health Workers (HC) & CHWs
Friday 14/11:
o Debriefing together with the district medical teams (Kwale, Msambweni & Kinango), UNICEF and other parties involved
o Goodbye dinner
Saturday 15/11:
12:30 pm: Travel to Belgium (flight Mombasa – Nairobi, flight Nairobi – Amsterdam)
Sunday 16/11:
09:00 am: Back home (after the flight Amsterdam – Brussels).
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I have only 1 word for this experience: W O N D E R F U L
W stands for Water. Many people in Africa still have to walk a long distance to get water for drinking, cooking; in short, for living.
O stands for Overwhelming, referring to the whole project.
N stands for Nature. Despite the bumpy roads is Kenya an amazing country.
D stands for DHL, which is part of another D word, DPWN.
I am proud to work for this company.
Thank you, management team, that you gave me the opportunity to be part of this project.
It has made me change my view on Africa in general and on rural Kenya in particular.
E stands for East Kenya, the south of it in particular, the region where we have been working.
R stands for Reducing Child Mortality and also for Road shows, to promote the Malezi Bora campaign (http://www.health.go.ke/Malezi%20Bora%202008.pdf), in which we have been acting.
F stands for Full of Emotions.
U stands for Unicef. What they do for children is impressive and I am prepared to help raising funds in order to support more of these projects.
And finally,
L stands for a Loving and Caring team of DHL-Unicef 2008 Ambassadors.
The L also stands for LIVE in all it’s meanings, including I HAD THE TIME OF MY LIVE.
Asante sana, thank you very much,
Best Regards,
Eddy Van Uytsel
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