Photos from Kenya and a note from Dr. Sarah Beekley 8/25/2010

Dr. Sarah Beekley, a hospital-based pediatrician at the Kaiser Permanente Redwood City Medical Center, has spent much of August working at the Matibabu Clinic in western Kenya. The clinic serves a vast area of poverty and disease, mainly HIV/AIDS and tropical illness. The clinic was founded by Dr. Gail Wagner, an East Bay Kaiser Permanente physician, who was alerted to the need by her daughter.  While many Kaiser Permanente physicians have volunteered at Matibabu, Dr.Beekley brought HER daughters along on this medical mission.

Anjali, Dr. Beekley's daughter, lived with this family in Ukwala

Downtown Ukwala, Kenya, location of the Matibabu Clinic

Dr. Beekley's daughter Jenna buys fabric for bag project

Dr. Sarah Beekley posts more about Kenya, and her daughters

Greetings from Ukwala, Kenya. My three daughters and I are now concluding our projects with Matibabu Kenya. While looking forward to a hot shower and a familiar language, we already miss the easy laughter and unselfish kindness of our new friends.

My last days in Ukwala were spent with Dan Ogola, Director of Matibabu Kenya. Starting with a visit to the small village school he attended, he walked me along the footpaths of his community. We saw the girls’ school, the orphanage, the youth center, and the greenhouses, and ended at the site of the future Matibabu Hospital. His commitment to making Matibabu relevant, effective and sustainable was inspirational. After our walk we decided to survey all the current health care delivery systems in the area, and assess where Matibabu could best expand its collaboration with the Kenyan Ministry of Health. As a pediatrician I was struck by the fact that there are essentially no individual well-child exams, ever. A child born at home, as most are, can reach adulthood without ever having been examined by a nurse or physician. Through Matibabu’s work, this can change.

My greatest, and unexpected, reward during these weeks was watching how enthusiastically my daughters adapted to a new culture and austere living, and how creative and resourceful they were in contributing to Matibabu’s work. Each started a project with Matibabu which will continue upon their return home. Jenna and Lauren put together a plan for a children’s center designed to attract young families. They are putting together the content and marketing material for a year of educational events. One of these events will be modeled after Kaiser Permanente’s own educational Teddy Bear Clinics. They also translated information on sanitation and hygiene from English into the local language of Luo. They then distributed soap and educational material and performed demonstrations to both small and large gatherings in the community. Anjali worked at the Young Center, continuing the work of a previous volunteer who inspired a group of teens to write and perform a peer-to-peer play dealing with alcohol and substance abuse. She also took the initiative to design a handbag using the beautiful batik fabrics of East Africa. The three girls then kept the majority of seamstresses in Ukwala and at Matibabu’s vocational training program “Stitches for Change” busy sewing these bags. Anjali plans to sell the bags at college and to send the profits to Matibabu. My daughters, and the Kenyan youth they worked with, reminded me not to underestimate the ability of young people. Rather, my task now is to help find new challenges for them!

Dr. Beekley now heads for remote Kenya

 

 

 

 

(Editor’s note: if after reading Dr. Beekley’s account of her visit to Matibabu you feel touched to support the clinic efforts, a tax-deductible donation can be made to: www.tibafoundation.org)

Greetings again from Kenya. 

It has been a very busy week at Matibabu Kenya. The majority of my pediatric patients are suffering from malaria , intestinal parasites, poor nutrition, and the anemia that results from all of these illnesses. We are fortunate to have the diagnostic equipment, educators, and pharmacy on site, as the patients often travel great distances to see us. I have heard many families express their appreciation for our ‘integrated system’, modelled, on a very small scale, after our own Kaiser Permanente! 

I am seeing some very unusual and challenging medical cases here as well. Among them was a 13-year-old girl presenting for the very first time in congestive heart failure from a probable congenital heart deformity that had never been evaluated. | have seen nephritis, sepsis, and the early symptoms of congenital HIV infection. As always, the patients are extraordinarily gracious and warm despite their struggles. 

I had the privilege yesterday of spending time with Dan Ogola, the visionary community organizer who, with Dr. Gail Wagner of KP, formed Matibabu. He showed me the many projects that Matibabu is doing to break the cycle of poverty via education and disease prevention. We visited the girls’ school, the greenhouses, a community educational meeting, the Youth Education center, the HIV/AIDS clinic at which Matibabu works in collaboration with the Kenyan Ministry of Health, and the future hospital site. Tomorrow I will travel with the Matibabu field officers to provide care and education in the distant villages. The energy and commitment of Dan and his team was inspirational. An American dollar stretches far here. but it is the dedication of this community that is making change possible. 

As before, internet access remains challenging, but I will write again if I am able. 

Regards, 

Sarah Beekley 

Dr. Sarah Beekley, Kaiser Permanente Redwood City, and 3 daughters

Dr. Sarah Beekley comments from African mission

Greetings from Akwala, Kenya. I have been working at the Matibabu clinic for 1 week now, and the magnitude of the medical, nutritional and social needs here are greater even than I had anticipated. Nearly every child brought to the clinic with fever has malaria and many have secondary infections or profound anemia. As the families are mainly subsistence farmers, finding the cash required to cover medicines has been a constant challenge. The parents of one infant with a hg of 3.5 (life threateningly low) declined to take the child to the hospital due to the cost. Another waited over 4 hours for family members to bring the equivalent of 7 cents to cover the cost of the medicine. The parents of a third child declined to accept transfer of their seven year old daughter via ambulance despite her being in obvious septic shock with a large, tender abdominal mass. The staff of the clinic contributed the funds to cover the ambulance, but the fees required at the hospital may seriously compromise the family’s ability to provide adequate food for the remainder of their children. One can only feel compassion for parents in having to make such impossible choices, as they clearly love their children.

The staff at Matibabu is dedicated, well trained, and resourceful. They are clearly making a difference here, and the community seems to support and appreciate the work. They have been supporting me in every way possible. Each of the doctors see 30- 50 patients a day, but I have yet to hear a word of complaint. I am quickly learning tropical medicine, and have had the opportunity to be of service to many, many families.

I hope to be able to write again next week.

Regards,

Sarah Beekley