15th August, 2011
Story by Betty Muriuki
Successful and depressing. Those are the words I used to describe our one-day trip to the remote Turkana County, where the DG, Dr Teguest Guerma, officially launched AMREF’s drought response activities at a medical camp. It was successful because the event was well organised, and the teams on the ground have organised similar camps along the migratory route used by the Turkana. It was the harsh realities of the effects of the drought that made it depressing.
When we arrived at the Loitanik Primary School, the venue of the camp, we found hundreds of people, most of them sitting on the ground, close to each other, as if for support. The Turkana are a tall, proud and energetic people, but the crowd that waited for us was anything but energetic. In my mind is ingrained the image of old men sitting quite still, looking straight at us with expressionless faces, the contours of their ribs clearly outlined against the skin of their bare torsos. Men who are in normal times the breadwinners and decision makers in their families and communities were now at the mercy of others for the most basic of needs – food. Men who owned large herds of animals had lost their source of livelihood and pride. Faces that usually reflected dignity now carried vacant looks.
In the background, women lined up to get into the classrooms where consultation and treatment were going on. Nasistae Ejore brought in her son, Ejen. So emaciated was the boy that his legs were unable to support his tiny frame. At two years old, Ejen weighed a mere eight kilogrammes. He occasionally coughed, weakly. When Ejore set him on the floor, a pool of watery diarrhoea spread slowly around him. The DG gave Ejore a pack of bottles containing a nutrient-rich therapeutic drink for herself, and some ready-made baby food for Ejen. Then Kiragu, AMREF’s driver in Turkana, gently led Ejore out. He would drive her to the nearby Kaikor health centre, so that Ejen could receive inpatient treatment.
As Ejore walked out, an old woman, thin and bent over, was brought in, supported on either side by relatives. They sat her down on the floor with her back against the wall, next to other elderly women. Kenya Country Director Dr Lennie Bazira Kyomuhangi gave her a bottle of the therapeutic drink. She took a sip, put the lid back on. She was clearly famished, but refused to take any more. Asked why she wouldn’t drink it, she said she was saving the rest for later. It was only when she was assured that she would get a whole pack that she agreed to drink some more.
The camp was very busy. The health personnel immunised babies, gave out medication, showed mothers how to give their babies the therapeutic foods, and taught them how to use the water purifying tablets. Maize was distributed. As the day wore on the mood slowly began to change. There was more conversation among the women, sometimes a brief smile.
When we got back to Nairobi that evening, I felt guilty – guilty when I served up my dinner, and guilty when I got into my warm bed. When I thought of the old Turkana men and women, my mind went to my own parents, elderly and prone to age-related ailments, but with enough to eat and easy access to medical care. But what of the Turkana people? Why should they go hungry? Why should a two-year-old like Ejen suffer so or his mother be forced to carry so heavy a burden?
The following morning, I felt that I should go right back to Turkana to do something, anything, to ease the anguish of the people there. But what could I do – buy five sacks of maize and board the next bus up north? Reason slowly dawned: the National Offices are doing a great job raising money for the drought-related activities. The hard-working AMREF team in Turkana has the medical camps under control. My role is to tell stories so that AMREF can get more support for the communities we work with. I may not be the one that examines the mothers or vaccinates the babies, but what I am doing is for them too.
Dr Kyomuhangi put it very simply but clearly when she told her staff in Turkana: “We are raising a lot of money, but it is not to make AMREF rich; it is for the benefit of the people.” Indeed we all know it, but it was an important reminder - that the reason we all do what we do is for the benefit of the people.
