Having completed the Tropical Nursing course in July Noreen and Sallie embarked on a series of fundraising events before their planned trip in October. Through sponsored walks and quiz evenings and clothes sales and suppers they managed to raise almost £2500 to take out to Kenya.
Jo accompanied Sallie and Noreen for the first week and introduced them to the clinic and the staff and all those local villagers who have become friends.
The trip was to last six weeks and be a real test of commitment and resilience, not least to the lack of running water and electricity.
During this visit the money raised was spent on malaria testing kits and the drugs to treat the disease as well as lots of other essentials. At this time there had been a failed attempt by local workers to dig a bore hole to provide vital clean water to the clinic. Sallie and Noreen came up with another solution whilst troubleshooting of the well situation continued. A system was installed to collect the rain water from the tin roof of the clinic and divert it to clean collection tanks. This enabled them to have a plentiful supply of water during the rainy season which was clean and parasite free.
The British nurses spent a lot of time teaching the Kenyan clinic staff and introducing models of working to help them with diagnosing and treating patients. They became familiar with the problems facing these people on a daily basis and were amazed and humbled by their faith and stoicism.
When asked about the prevalence of HIV and AIDS and how it affected the community one villager remarked “if you are not infected you are affected by HIV”