Sunday, March 30, 2008

Sons of Lwala II


The Kenyan musicians shown above performed at the reception before the premiere of Sons of Lwala the other evening. In addition, Jars of Clay, a Christian rock group, performed one of the songs they had written and performed for the movie. And, former Senator Bill Frist gave the introduction to the movie.

A couple of final notes: Milton and Fred's older brother, Ormondi, manages the clinic. Their two sisters, Flo and Grace, are in still in school. One is a senior in high school, and the other is in nursing school, both in the United States. The youngest Ochieng' brother, Solomon, is a freshman in high school in Kenya.

The clinic sees a lot of children, and most of them are under the age of 5 years. Believe it or not, 80% of the children in the village are infested with intestinal parasites because of the lack of running water. The clinic itself doesn't have running water, although they hope to install a system in the next year.

Health care in this country, as we all know, is very expensive. In Lwala, $180 will supply a baby with clean water and formula for six months. . . $300 will pay the salary of a community health worker for one year. . .$3300 will pay the salary of one nurse for a year. It makes you think, doesn't it?

6 comments:

Clueless in Boston said...

It's tragic to think that a country can be so poor that a measly $300 will pay the salary of a health worker for one year.

Olivier said...

bravo pour ces deux posts, très intéressant et très dur. Les chiffres que tu nous donnent sont affolant. Il est très dur de lire que "80% des enfants du village sont infestés de parasites intestinaux en raison du manque d'eau courante". J'espère que tout cela va bouger.

Bravo for these two posts, very interesting and very hard. The figures that you give us are alarming. It is very hard to read that "80% of children in the village are infested with intestinal parasites because of the lack of running water." I hope that all this will change.

brian stout said...

the length our small contributions can go is pretty astonishing.

George Townboy said...

Amazing story! Thanks again for publishing these two posts.

Anonymous said...

Another very informative post.
Well done.

Halcyon said...

What solidarity! I'm sure the $900 plane ticket here was a big sacrifice for the community. Do the brothers plan to go back and work in the clinic once their education is complete?