AITONG community health clinic & LODWAR Hospital

For many years now, we have helped support a doctors clinic that was held at Aitong. Personally and with the help of a few workmates and friends, we were able to supply solar and various medical equipment to that clinic. It has now come to pass that the doctor was eventually unable to continue the practise there, and has moved to the big town of Narok.

For all those years the people of Olemoncho and surrounding districts have been trying to organise a clinic in their area, as Aitong is a 7 - 8 kms walk for them. In our visit to the Aitong Hospital in Sept, 2011, and chatting with the chief and other community members, we agreed that the best place to keep the fridge, microscope and centrifuge that was dontated, would be at the main hospital in Aitong, (read blog) so that this place could be the main hub for the more serious ailments, and that a small clinic in the area of Olemoncho, would be benificial for the more frequent cases like malaria etc, where they can go to get their treatment and medication close to home, without the long walk, which of-course, is quite strenuous when you are so sick and have no other choice.

after much discussion, a agreement was made that if the community provided half of the money to build the clinic in Olemoncho, (which we have learnt they are capable of), then we would provide the other half. At this point we are still waiting to see action on their side. Once we retire, that offer can no longer stand as we wont have the finance then.

In the meantime, we have helped the Aitong Hospital with TV & DVD for educational classes, sheets and blankets for IN- patients. In 2012, we up-dated their solar system to cope with the big demands plus donated a portable dental unit and ultra-sound for the hospital amoung other things. You can read in our blog section how the ultra sound was extremely useful a month after receiving it, as it helped diagnose a woman who thought her unborn baby had died. The ultra sound proved to be a great assett indeed.    

More recently, as of August 2012, we made a delivery to Lodwar Hospital in the far northern frontier of Kenya. This is quite a large hospital that takes care of approx 500 sq miles..... a huge area. Most of their equipment is quite old, but they do pretty much everything that a major hospital does... including a lot of eye surgery. It was obvious that this hospital could use a lot of help, so We have plans of making another delivery to this hospital in 2013. You can read more about this hospital in our blog section.

UPDATE: As of July 2013, the time has come for Bob to retire which means our funding must come to an end. A sad time for us as we wont be able to continue the work we have been doing,... but also, a time that we have waited many years to come, as our own lifetime african adventure gets on it's way.

The disappointing part is that Olemoncho never came up with any money for the clinic to be built in the area, which was a agreement that they would fund half, but for us, we are out of time, & no longer will be able to make the donation.

All we can say is that we have been consistently helping out where we can for as long as we can since 2001, .. but as with all good things,... there comes a time that it too must end.... and for that, it comes with Bobs retirement. I know he does agonize over that matter, but such is life, and we now have to make our own superannuation stretch for the best part of our life....even Bob will have to get use the word.... BUDGET.

OCTOBER 2013: Our final contributions made this year were to Lodwar hospital, Aitong health clinic and a small maternity hospital close to Olemoncho. Among other things, we donated delivery kits, delivery bed, suction pump, ECG machines, microscopes, and a large variety of other equipment which you can find in the 'Donations & Support' page and our blog.