An Update from the Nets for Africa Kenya Medical Mission

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An update from the Nets for Africa Kenya Medical Mission – the team treated over 4,700 people and handed out 6,025 mosquito nets.

In September Ker & Downey President David Marek and his wife Gana traveled to Kenya on their annual medical mission to assist doctors with blood tests, dental and eye exams, general doctor’s visits, handing out prescriptions, and distributing nets to the rural communities. This was the first year the team traveled to Kenya. In years past, the team has based their mission out of Uganda.

Our medical mission this year took us near Eldoret in western Kenya to provide nets, medical visits, medications, dentistry, ophthalmology, blood tests and more to three remote villages. We had the option of going to Kenya or Uganda this year and decided upon Kenya only because most of our group had never been to Kenya. And it was a good choice. The big impact for me on this trip was seeing the number of eye issues one of the villages experienced. Obviously something in the environment, their drinking water, or hygiene was causing this level of eye infections. Since most of them drink from the same shallow water well it’s probably a good bet that the source of the issue was there. In any event, our eye doctors treated a lot of cases of eye infections in addition to all of the other issues we handled. – David Marek

There are some things the doctors onsite cannot treat – a severe eye laceration, a child born paralyzed – and the team must refer patients to other doctors. But thanks to your generous donations, the team along with the doctors were able to treat over 4,700 people and hand out 6,025 insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

At the end of the trip, one thing was clear – though many in the rural communities suffer from aches and pains from a life that is just too hard and too stressful, the people are hopeful, joyful, and happy. There is definitely a richness in Kenya, and it doesn’t come from anything you can buy.

Ker & Downey’s Nets for Africa campaign is an on-going, year-round project. Malaria is still a major cause of death in children five years old and younger. But a simple treated net has the power to save lives. For more information about how you can get involved, contact Ker & Downey.

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