Hilfe gegen Dürrekatastrophe: Medical Camp in Turkana
August 10, 2011
AMREF launched its drought response in Kenya with a medical camp in Turkana District, one of the regions worst affected by the drought.
Hundreds of people, men and women, young and old, their faces and bodies telling the story of hardship and hunger, turned up at the Loitanik Primary School in Kaikor division, eager for medical attention – and food.
“AMREF has been working with the Turkana community for the last 50 years,” said AMREF Director General Dr Teguest Guerma who officially opened the medical camp and launched the organisation’s implementation programme. “I am deeply saddened by the suffering of the people of Turkana as a result of drought and hunger. By launching our official activities here, we are showing our solidarity and concern for them.”
Dr Guerma led AMREF staff and volunteers, and government health workers, in giving out therapeutic food to children, pregnant and lactating mothers and the elderly. The food, which contains crucial micronutrients and does not need cooking, was provided by AMREF and Humedica with funds raised through German organisation Sternstunden. Two hundred bags of maize and beans from the district store was also given out.
Men, women and children were screened and treated for disease and nutrition-related illnesses. They also received water treatment tablets and were shown how to use minimal amounts of water to ensure basic hygiene, and thus prevent water-related diseases.
“It is important to ensure hygiene because eye infections and diarrhoeral diseases like cholera can easily break out when there is a shortage of water. Disease will only weaken the people more and we must prevent that,” said Dr Guerma.
She promised that AMREF would do all it can to ensure that the people living in the areas where AMREF works do not have to suffer as they are now.
“AMREF is a health development organisation that seeks long-term solutions to health challenges, but development work cannot progress when people are hungry. In many of the places where we work, like parts of Kajiado and Kitui, we have helped to transform lives by providing clean and safe sources of water, which have greatly reduced diseases and also sustained livelihoods such as agriculture and livestock breeding. I would like to see the same thing happening in Turkana, and I promise that we will do our best to find long-term solutions here too so that the people do not find themselves in such a bad situation again.”
Among those who accompanied the DG were area Member of Parliament Mr John Munyes, the Rift Valley Provincial Medical Officer, Dr Waquo Ejersa, and AMREF’s Country Director in Kenya, Dr Lennie Bazira Kyomuhangi, Humedica representative Joshua Ogula, and AMREF in Kenya’s Programme Manager for Child and Reproductive Health, Mr Peter Ofware.
AMREF will continue running the medical camps along the migratory route used by the Turkana in order to reach as many people as possible. In a debriefing meeting after the launch, Dr Kyomuhangi praised the team in Turkana and volunteers from Nairobi for their work in responding to the drought despite the hardships they face, including the remoteness of the area, sweltering heat, hostile terrain and limited resources. AMREF’S day-to-day interventions must continue, she said, but in addition AMREF is concentrating on providing food and nutritional supplements, therapeutic feeds, safe water and sanitation, and medical care in order to mitigate the effects of the drought.
Dr Kyomuhangi praised the partnership between AMREF and the Ministry of Health in conducting the medical outreach missions. Using established structures on the ground, she said, AMREF will partner with organisations that are distributing food to ensure that as many families as possible are reached.
While the official launch was held yesterday, activities to mitigate the immediate and medium-term effects of the drought had already begun in affected parts of the country, including Makueni, Kitui, Kajiado, Loitokitok, Samburu, West Pokot, Baringo, Laikipia, Matinyani, Mutitu, Magadi, Malindi, Kilifi, Lamu, Wajir, and in the informal urban settlements of Kibera and Dagoretti in Nairobi.
“Our focus is to save lives. We are grateful to all the donors who have given us money to do this work. We will use the money coming in for drought-related activities in the most effective way possible to benefit the communities, and we will account for every dollar and shilling,” Dr Kyomuhangi said.
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