Ambulance Service?

Involved as I am in the well-being of a small community in Kenya, I do a lot of reading about illness, health and prevention, and the one thing that strikes me is that there are a lot of unnecessary deaths due to illnesses such as malaria, particularly amongst children, because their immune systems are not yet fully active, and they dehydrate more quickly.

I have been told, on good authority that a child sick with malaria needs glucose to "kick-start" the body, but this is rarely available in rural areas. So, if a child is sick with malaria (and many other illnesses) a spoonful of sugar placed under the tongue is a good alternative.

But, at the end of the day, the child needs to go to hospital for treatment - as quickly as possible. And this is where the problems start. People in rural areas rarely have a vehicle, they may not even have a "proper" road to the village. So the child has to be carried to the nearest road and then it is a wait for a matatu to come along with enough space to take the child and parent. The matatu, of course, costs money.

This got me thinking. If a vehicle were available in a town where there is a hospital (Kisii springs to mind), just how much would it cost to run a free ambulance service covering the outlying areas. All it would take is a single phone call from the village to the ambulance control and it would be dispatched to pick up the sick person and transport them to hospital.

The vehicle does not need the state of the art equipment that is to be found in ambulances in the UK. I doesn't even have to be a specially-built vehicle. A minibus with a few seats removed or folded down to make room for a stretcher would be adequate. The crew would probably need basic first aid knowledge and be capable of driving in a safe manner.

Twos and blues would probably be useful, but not absolutely necessary. Other drivers would probably not take a lot of notice as many matatus are also equipped with these.

So, a basic minibus with a few seats modified, a stretcher that  can be fixed securely into the vehicle, a part-time driver, and we could have an ambulance.

The sick, particularly children would get to hospital quickly to be treated before it is too late.

There must be a hole in this idea somewhere, it is far too easy.

Oh yes! Funding. Money. Isn't it funny how the health of children comes down to money - or the lack of.

Today's The Day

I just thought I would write a few words during this moment when I am sitting down to catch my breath, after running around like a headless chicken, getting ready for my trip to Kenya later today.

Firstly, I would like to thank the people of Thatcham who collected used children's clothes for me to take over to the orphanage. I have far too many to take in one trip, so I will just have to plan another trip, won't I (heh heh)?

Secondly, I want to thank the people, mainly my clients, who have donated cash and computer equipment, which has been sold to raise cash.

Lastly, I want to thank my Mum, who, despite the fact that she is dreading being left home alone, has made every effort to make this trip possible.

I am leaving today at 19:15, arriving in Nairobi at 06:05 local time, then straight off to Kisii to the orphanage and farm, where we will set about preparing the land and sowing seed.

I am also meeting up with other NGOs and between us we will be launching an anti-malaria campaign through the schools - teach 'em young!

I intend to keep this blog up to date, Internet connections willing, so watch this space.

On My Way: Part I

So, I have settled all the affairs I can, posted out loads of reminder invoices and checked all my commitments for the next two months.

And I think I can finally get my butt out to Kenya. It has been over a year since I was last there, about 9 months too long a gap between visits.

I am planning to leave the UK on 7 May, flying overnight to JKIA, arriving early on the Friday morning, then a shuttle to Kisii, unless a miracle happens and I can hire/borrow/beg/steal a car - forget the steal bit, just hire/borrow/beg. I really do not like the trip from Nairobi to Kisii on shuttles. I feel that it is akin to suicide.

After an as yet undefined stay in Kisii, where I will be getting the shamba into some sort of order, and kick-starting an anti-malaria drive in the area, I will hop across the country to Malindi to see my girlfriend and the kids. I suspect that I will do very little as I find the coast just too hot.

Finally, I will probably have to stay a few days in Nairobi to catch up with contacts and see what the job prospects are. Then home to UK.

Shouldn't take more than a month to six weeks. It's a tough life but someone has to do it.

Doctors Welcome Malaria Microchip

Now this is good news - but not for countries crippled with malaria!

Dr. Joseph Mugasa (Kenyan Tanzanian) and Project leader Dr Lisa Ranford-Cartwright at Glasgow University claim they have created a device which can detect malaria within minutes.

From the BBC News website:

Doctors have welcomed the development as more travellers go abroad without taking proper precautions against the disease.
The flu-like symptoms can be missed until the patient is critically ill.
Blood samples are placed in the microchip, which is designed to detect the strain of disease. This means the best drug can be used to treat it.
Last year a study revealed more cases of the most dangerous type of malaria than ever before are being brought back to the UK from trips abroad.

The Health Protection Agency study identified 6,753 cases of falciparum malaria diagnosed between 2002 and 2006.
Experts said many of the cases arose from visits to west Africa made by people visiting relatives and friends.
Project leader Dr Lisa Ranford-Cartwright said: "The current way of diagnosing is using a blood smear on a slide and examining it on a microscope.
"That will take a good microscopist a good hour to reach a diagnosis, it's extremely difficult to make that diagnosis accurately.
"The chip can give us a result in as little as half an hour."

Unfortunately, this device will only be available in the developed world, where malaria is only a problem for travellers who do not take adequate precautions, as it will be too expensive for developing countries, which are the ones that really need it!

Why Drugs Are So Expensive

By A Tool-using Thing-maker
and
Daily Nation 12/1/09

Shifting target? Or just expanding?

I have been approached by a businessman in Cameroon to shift the malaria-control project to Cameroon. He reckons that he could find financial backing for the project, and that is tempting.

But I can't do that. My loyalty is with Kenya. Kenya is my love, my mistress. Kenya is my second home. So, when the project gets off the ground, it has to be in Kenya.

But, that is not to say that when it is established and I have proven to myself that we are on the right track, I will not expand to Cameroon [or Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi ...]

I am a bi-lingual English/French speaker, so communication will not a problem in Cameroon, and I am not against helping Cameroonians (is that right?) or any other people, wherever they are, but they have to accept that Kenya takes priority.

Or am I looking at the problem with blinkers?

Another Year, Another Resolution

I don't really hold with New Year's Resolutions. I am of the opinion that it is daft, making up resolutions that will not be adhered to for more than a couple of days or weeks (if you are really good!).

But this year, I am going to make one or two.

Firstly,my glass will always be half-full, never half-empty.

Secondly, I am going to attack (if this is the right word) the projects I have set up through KCIS with renewed vigour - somehow.

The most important, at the moment, is to find some regular funding for the Kids' Home, which is finding it difficult to pay for the food required to keep 38 tummies full.

Then, River Cottage and Scrapheap will have to be tackled.

Then there is the malaria control project. I have started this, working in the UK, but sooner or later, I am going to have to get out to Kenya. I need a friendly doctor, bio-chemist or similar for advice on this one, just to clear up a few questions that are bugging me.

On another tack, I will be promoting a new (-ish) project, commercial this time. But the excess profit (profit? What's that?) will go into the KCIS coffers.

So, short of finding a benefactor with deep pockets, with a particular interest in Kenya, the commercial project is probably the only way we are going to get funding. KCIS is too small for most foundations and other charities to take any notice of us - but watch this space. We are going to grow. We are going to make a difference, maybe just a small one, but we will succeed.

So, for the first time in ages, I have made my resolutions!

Leap of Faith

I will not be ordering anti-malaria tablets for my next trip to Kenya in January. Apart from the fact that one month's supply costs almost £30, which is a big slice out of my meagre budget, they have horrible side-effects that I can do without.

No, I will be placing my well-being fairly on the shoulders of a solution for which there have been claims that it can prevent malaria, and if the user is unfortunate enough to contract the disease, on increasing the dose, will cure within a couple of hours.

This may be a dangerous action to take, but, I need to know if this stuff really works, and if I want to see the results first-hand, who better to test it on than me - not exactly scientific, but it's the best I can do.

If this stuff really works, then I will have in my possession a product that will flush the disease out of a body at the cost of a couple of pennies. Presently, treatment for malaria in Kenya costs Ksh 2,000, or about £17 ($25 US).

We intend to set up an education programme, aimed at schools. The idea is to show kids how the mosquito breeds in standing water, then show them where this standing water may be, in old discarded tyres, buckets, tin cans, puddles.

They will be encouraged to try and eradicate these breeding grounds, thereby offering fewer places for mosquitoes to breed.

We may also try a leaflet campaign in the town, as long as we can get support from the municipal council (we don't want to be accused of littering or fly-posting).

World Malaria Day

This is the first World Malaria Day and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is to launch a new campaign to eliminate deaths from malaria.

I wish him luck. I have been studying malaria, or more accurately, mosquito control. Studies have been made all over the world, some with really encouraging results, but from what I can see, because these studies are carried out by academics (naturally), once the result has been found, that's the end of it. No one actually puts the trials into long-term meaningful action.

So, let us hope that Ban Ki-moon can kick the powers that be into some sort of shape to do something about this disease and the unnecessary deaths it causes.

The Kenyan government, a long time ago, started a programme of issuing insecticide treated nets to all under-fives, firstly at subsidised prices and more recently, for free. I raise my hat to them.

The problem is that the responsibility has been passed to NGOs, usually foreign. In my experience (admittedly limited), these NGOs are falling down on the job.

For example, my orphanage in Kisii has not received a single net although we have several children under five.

The director of the home has two children under five. He has not received any nets. And other people I talked to in the town with children under five have not received nets either.

The government is paying these NGOs to do a job. Where is the money going?