Write a commentA County Leitrim nurse is raising funds for a rural hospital in Kenya via a Go Fund Me page.
Anita McTernan, from Dromahair, Co. Leitrim has been working in a Sisters of Mercy, Mission Hospital since Nov 1999. She originally volunteered for a two year period and was sponsored by APSO – the Irish Government. agency for personal service overseas.
The Mission Hospital, primary school and secondary school was originally established by the Sisters of Mercy from the diocese of Elphin. Four nursing sisters belonging to the Irish Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy (Teresita Conneally, Maria Goretti Cunniffe, Paschal Gibbons and Mary Mc. Dermott) arrived in Mutomo on the 12th December 1962.
This hospital –the only one in the area caters for a region with 180,000 people and is located at Mutomo in the diocese of Kitui about 250 Km from Nairobi the capital of Kenya. The hospital has a staff of 107 people, all Kenyans except for Anita. Due to a chronic shortage of water it is stored in 65 tanks when it becomes available and on occasions has to be trucked in from elsewhere in Kenya. Anita’s personal allowance is one bucket a day.
They established a new isolation unit to cater for children suffering from burns and snake bites. Because it is a mission hospital it receives no financial support from the Government in Kenya. Many patients are unable to pay anything for their treatment.
The local people effectively live in bush country which is very remote and semi arid, and they have to use dirt roads to travel to the hospital. Children often fall into open cooking fires & get badly burnt. Mutomo hospital feds between 250 and 280 children every month on a diet of eggs, flour. maize and milk. Clubs have been established for the orphan children and these include 10 in outlying areas. Activities for participants include playing, singing and developing social skills. There are also 43 community help support groups for adults.
People in Mutomo are often in desperate need of water. If there has been no rain in March/April (the season for planting seed) then they have no crops to harvest during July/Aug.
If farmers have no crops to sell they cannot pay for family health or education. Disease such as Malaria and AIDS is often exacerbated by malnutrition. Three thousand, nine hundred and eighty five (3,985) orphans and vulnerable children are registered in their program.
The good news is that with the use of expensive drugs that life expectancy of AIDS victims can be greatly prolonged and the risk of babies being born with AIDS can be minimised. Due to the good education work being done in the area the local AIDS rate is only 2.1% compared to 6.2% overall for Kenya. Those suffering from AIDS have a high risk of dying from TB.
African goats cost only €25- 30 and are supplied to the carers of AIDS families. The family uses the milk and the only condition of supply is that the first kid born is supplied to another AIDS family. In the Social Centre, in the Mission grounds local girls learn hairdressing and needlework thereby empowering them to be a source of income for their families.
You can support the campaign at WWW.GOFUNDME.COM
