Masai Mara Region: Lolgorian Health Centre

On 5 March 2008, UIC Project Global Village donated 300 LifeStraws to the Lolgorian Health Centre in the Masai Mara region for distribution by medical staff to people who are diagnosed with waterborne illnesses. 90% of the children who are treated at the Lolgorian Health Centre suffer from diseases they have contracted by drinking contaminated water. Including LifeStraws as part of the treatment for such illnesses will help to prevent recurrence.
The Lologorian Health Centre serves a population of 60,000 people, most of whom must walk for miles to receive medical care. The health center offers both in-patient and out-patient services, and has twenty-two beds in the medical wing and eight beds in the maternity wing. The center's dedicated staff consists of five nurses and two clinical officers.

The nearest medical doctor is over 30 miles away, and Lologorian Health Centre does not have an ambulance for transferring patients. In cases of emergencies, Lolgorian staff members often pay for taxis themselves to help people in need.






Two of the clinical officers welcome Kipas ole Manie, Enkereri Village chief, and George Gituku of Custom Safaris.






While touring the medical facility, we discovered that the health center's only source of electricity is a diesel-powered generator. Because the generator is so expensive to run (over $12 per hour), it is reserved for only the most extreme emergencies. (And delivering a baby in the middle of the night is not considered an emergency, unless the woman ends up needing a Casearean-section. Routine deliveries and other medical procedures are regularly performed at night with only kerosene lanterns to provide lighting.)

During the rainy season, this dirt road that leads to the Lolgorian Health Centre is virtually impassable. People in the Masai Mara region typically walk miles to seek health care. Despite the great needs and challenges that the community faces, we were impressed by the dedication of the staff who strive to offer the best health care care possible. The medical facility in Lolgorian has great potential to adequately serve the community if upgrades in transport and power could be provided.

The Masai Mara region: Enkereri Village

The famed Masai Mara area is well known internationally for stunning landscapes and spectacular wildlife. The region is also home to a number of small, impoverished communities who face numerous challenges, including a lack of clean water and adequate health care. In partnership with Custom Safaris, a tour operator who has been working to improve the lives of people in the Mara region, Project Global Village recently distributed 100 LifeStraws to children in Enkereri Village and 300 LifeStraws to the region's only health centre.

Enkereri, a Maa word that means view point, is a village about 20 kilometers outside of the Masai Mara Game Reserve. Enkereri has a population of about 200 people who live in traditional Maasai homes known collectively as a manyatta. Enkereri does not have electricity or running water. Villagers rely on rain water catchments and the Mara River for their drinking water.













Kipas ole Manie, the headman of Enkereri, welcomes us to his village. The manyatta is surrounded by a fence made of thorny acacia tree branches to keep wild animals away from the people and livestock who live there.













Three years ago, Custom Safaris built a nursery school for children ages 2-6 years old living in Enkereri and other villages nearby. Prior to the establishment of this school, young children had to walk several kilometers through bush terrain to attend nursery school. Custom Safaris has also been actively involved in educating Enkereri villagers about the need to clean water before drinking it, and the tour operator leads "humanitarian safaris" through which tourists donate LifeStraws to the community.

On March 4, 2008, UIC brought 100 LifeStraws to Enkereri Nursery School to give to the children and their parents. Village Headman, Kipas ole Manie, explained to the children that they need to use the straws every time they drink water that has not been boiled.
Kristina Dziedzic Wright of UIC and Kipas ole Manie handing out LifeStraws.















A child from Enkereri demonstrates using a LifeStraw.

Enkereri Nursery Schoolers welcome their guests from UIC in this video clip:

LifeStraw distribution in villages on Lamu Island

On Saturday, February 23, 2008, UIC Global Village launched its pilot project in the small villages of Kandahar, Kashmir and Bombay on Lamu Island. At a community meeting organized by local leaders, about 100 Life Straws were distributed to people whose drinking water is contaminated. The event served as an important public awareness campaign about the links between recent outbreaks of diarrheal diseases in the area and contamination of the well water. Respected members of the community educated villagers about the need to clean water from the well before consuming it and explained how to reduce further water contamination by properly disposing of waste.













In the photo above, Mr. Ngeti, Public Health Officer for Amu Division, describes recent test results showing that the area's well water is not safe to drink without cleaning it first.


Chief Adnan informs villagers about the area's high water level that often mixes with waste from pit latrines, and explains how each household can help reduce contamination of drinking water.







Mohammed Swaleh, imam of Kandahar Mosque, urges people to share what they've learned at the event with their neighbors and to work together in improving the health of everyone.











Kristina Dziedzic Wright from UIC explains how to use a LifeStraw.










Community leader Saida Makombo tries out a LifeStraw for the first time, concluding "Ni rahisi kutumia." (It's easy to use.)
















A volunteer from the Lamu Red Cross and Said Athman, head man (elder) of Kandahar hand out straws. The names and locations of everyone who took a straw were recorded so that community leaders could monitor the usage and effectiveness of this intervention strategy.

Partners with UIC for Project Global Village in Lamu were the region's Red Cross chapter, Eco-Sanitation Group, Chonjo Community Action Group, and local authorities. The Lamu chapter of the Red Cross offers organizational development, disaster relief and health education for Lamu District. Eco-Sanitation Group promotes environmental conservation and works to provide safe and affordable sanitation for all of Lamu's residents. Chonjo Community Action Group (CCAG) is a community-based organization that focuses on civic education projects to enhance the island environment, to support cultural conservation and to promote drug awareness in the community. CCAG publishes Lamu Chonjo, a quarterly magazine that tackles many of these issues within its pages.

Special thanks to Mohammed Athman, Patron of Eco-Sanitation Group, for all his many efforts in making this project a success, and to Hadija Bwanaadi Ernst, Editor of Lamu Chonjo and CCAG Chairperson, for valuable insight and moral support as well as photographing the event. Shukrani!

Introducing Project Global Village at UIC

Through Project Global Village, UIC partners with humanitarian service organizations, corporations and foundations to create a series of philanthropically supported service-learning initiatives. Many UIC faculty and graduate students return repeatedly to the same communities for long-term projects. They learn the local languages, customs/traditions and develop trusting relationships with community leaders. Project Global Village will support the development of these relationships by providing opportunities for faculty and students to improve the health, well-being and education of people in communities around the world where UIC researchers work.

A Pilot Run

UIC Graduate College alumna and current employee Kristina Dziedzic and her husband David Wright (also a UIC Graduate College alumnus) have returned to Kenya where they each completed research projects for their graduate degrees. David, who currently is a post-doctoral research associate with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has a National Geographic Society Explorers Grant to do an archaeological survey in the Lake Turkana/Chalbi Desert region. Project Global Village will begin on a small scale to test the concept while Kristina and David are in Kenya until mid-March.

The pilot project will distribute 500 personal water filtration devices to people in Kenya who have limited or no access to safe drinking water. LifeStraw® is a portable water purification tool made by the Vestergaard-Frandsen Company headquartered in Switzerland. The cylindrical device is about 25 cm long and 3 cm in diameter with a series of screens, carbon particles and resin filters inside that remove 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria and 98.7% of waterborne viruses from any source of water. Use of the LifeStraw® prevents diseases like diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid and cholera.

Photographs and stories from the field will be posted to this blog, so check back often to follow UIC Global Villagers around the world! To get involved or learn more, please send us an email or visit the Graduate College website. As we say in Swahili, safari njema (have a nice trip)…