Sickness in the Kilele family

From: Godwin Kilele
             Voi, Kenya
             6^th Feb

Hi Cliff and Jane, Davy, Ally, Katie and the entire Kileva family in England,

I wish to inform you that my lovely kid [my only son--Cliff Evans junior] has been unwell for whole of the past week and we have been moving from Voi to Mombasa for medical attention.

Cliff in Voi last November

It was one cool morning, and as usual, Grace [my wife] who has had malaria for the past two weeks, prepared tea for Naomi [1st born daughter], Joy [my 2nd born daughter and Cliff junior [last born son] and off they went to their respective schools. Joy and Naomi are in a public school while Cliff is in a private academy. After they took off, I also went out to KWS [Kenya Wildlife Services] meeting with the Tsavo East game warden [Mr Boit] to discuss how people have been happy with our Kileva Beehive Fencing initiatives which help the farmers from elephant raids.

But after few minutes, I got a call from Grace telling me that she has  been called to go to Cliff’s school as Cliff was seriously ill. It caught us all unawares and with pani, ran to Moi District Hospital where Cliff junior had been taken. He was there, not talking, just looking straight and we were chased out of the room by the doctors and from there we all wondered what was wrong…we just stood outside praying and praying hard enough, and because God is a mighty God, we were called and when we went inside Cliff was there and was complaining that he was hungry, funny, vey funny, the guy was ok.

When I asked the teacher what happened, the teacher said that it was during maths lesson and when teaching she thought of going back to the staffroom and because Cliff is the brightest in his class, as usual she called cliff infront of the class so that he can continue doing their stuff at tha blackboard, and she called,cliff evans,cliff evens and there was no response and when she moved closely, she noticed the guy was just freezing, eyes opened, and the worst part of it is that, there were no those black things in his eyes, they were plain white, then the lady teacher started screaming and the staff came for help, thats how it happened.

Cliff in Mombassa with medical notes

Iam just back today from Mombasa where I hve bee with my boy for the past few days and still we are comfortable as he is sleepy everytime and so far we have been advised by the Doctor at Pandya Memoial Hospital to send him back after he finishes the dose prescribed which means we go back on 17th this february which of course has been quite expensive to me and I can say Kileva has been generous to facilitate my kids medical expenses throughout all this time. 

Love and regards

Kilele

Footnote from Cliff senior: Since Kilele sent the above note Cliff junior has undergone further tests and has been diagnosed as suffering from pneumonia. His treatment is ongoing.

Kileva Centre Appeal : New Furniture

Since the 2012 Kileva Centre Appeal began I’m delighted to say that £450 has been raised to buy furniture and equipment for the centre and to help local people pay for the medical help they desperately need.  Many thanks to the people who’ve contributed.

Here’s a letter from the Assistant Chief of the Ndara region thanking us for providing furniture for the centre from the Kileva Centre Appeal funds:

To: Cliff Evans, Kileva Foundation Chairman From: Alex Mwambingu, Assistant Chief Ndara region Date: 29th Jan 2012 Hallo sir. Thanks for the 10 benches 2 tables and one chair for the Kileva Centre. I got them yesterday 28th. The baraza [meeting] was good in Kirumbi, I gave madam Margaret of Kileva the minutes and agenda. God bless you!  Alex

I’ll post the agenda and minutes that Alex mentions soon together with some ‘photos from the event.  Meanwhile here’s a couple of photos of the shiny new benches ..

New benches at the Kileva Centre

Benches in use

2012 Kileva Centre Appeal

As I mentioned in my previous post, sickness in the Ndara region of Sagalla where the Kileva Dispensary and the Kileva Eastfield School are located is common, and so I’ve received requests from both Margaret and the Assistant Chief of the region asking for our help to improve the facilities at the Kileva  Community Centre & Dispensary.

Please take a momemt to read their letters (below) and if you’d then like to make a donation to the 2012 Kileva Centre Appeal, please visit our JustGiving page at http://www.justgiving.com/Kileva-Centre-2012.

Thank you very much for your support.

Best wishes,

Cliff

__________________________________________

From: Margaret Kiriro
            Mwakoma, Kenya

THROUGH THE CHAIRMAN,
BOARD OF TRUSTEES,
16 CYPRESS ROAD,
WOODLY READING,
RGS 4BD BERKSHIRE,
ENGLAND-UK.

RE:ASSISTANCE FOR KIRUMBI DISPENSARY/COMMUNITY CENTRE

On behalf of Kirumbi community, i kindly wish to submit the above stated requisition for the Kileva Community Centre/Dispensary. Kirumbi Dispensary is located 12km from Voi town in Tsavo East National Park. The dispensary is a Kileva Foundation initiative and the main purpose of Kileva Foundation building the dispensary is because the two villages [MWAKOMA AND KIRUMBI] are far away from Moi Hospital which is located at Voi town, and diseases such as cholera, typhoid, light dysentry, malaria and snakebites are too common and much lives are lost during the search for medical attention or treatment.

Currently we are using the Kileva Centre/Community Dispensary for relief food programme store offerd by world vision and other NGOs. We also use it for clinical vaccines for kids e.g measles, polio etc. This means the government/ medical officer visit the site once per month. Apart from that, the medical officers use that day for advice, giving out mosquito nets etc.

Currently the area [Ndara sub-location] Assistant chief [Mr Alex Mwambungu]uses one room as his office and it has become easy for the youth who are 18yrs acquire letteres for identity cards [National ID]. Also local barazas [meetings] are done there too for solving cases eg pregnancies, local taboo defaultres etc.

We are also requesting for atleast 100 plastic chairs. All the water from the roof is to be trapped and be utilised, thats why we come to you for an assistance.

May God bless you Abundantly.

Thanking you for your continued support.

Yours faithfully,

Margaret Samba Kiriro.

______________________________________________

From: Alex Mwambungu
            Assistant Chief, Ndari Sub-Location
            Sagalla, Kenya

The Assistant Chief in his Office

With the Assistant Chief during our visit in Nov 2010

Sickness in Sagalla

This week has been a reminder of the kind of health problems that the people in remote villages such as Mwakoma & Kirumbi face, where diseases such as cholera, typhoid and malaria are common.  For example both Kilele and Margaret are currently suffering - Kilele from persistent intestinal problems and Margaret from malaria.

I’m therefore looking at how we can increase utilisation of the Kileva Medical and Community Centre in Kirumbi, and will post another blog entry in the next few days giving further background including letters from Margaret and the Ndara Sub-Location Assistant Chief (Alex Mwambungu) in which they appeal for help.

Kileva Dispensary & Community Centre in Kirumbi

Meanwhile (at least for those of us in the UK) next time we complain about our National Health Service let’s spare a thought for the people in Kirumbi & Mwakoma that have no health service at all!

Best wishes

Cliff

Kileva Eastfield pupils go hungry – can you help?

From: Godwin kilele
                Voi, Kenya

 

On behalf of the Mwakoma community,iam kindly requesting for help/aid to Kileva Eastfield School for assistance for lunch food for the school kids. The school has operational four classes[standard one to standard four] and has a total of 68 pupils.

 

Mwakoma village is a human wildlife conflict zone where rains are inadequate, and famine is brought by the elephant raids in the farms and thus the villagers normally end up harvesting alot of nothing. What i mean is that,becoz of the crop raids by elephants in our shambas[farms], there is nothing in the houses and nothing is eaten during the night in many families and because of the small food ration i give to the school, all kids normally attend to school not only beacause of coming to school, but as the only place the kid can get atleast a meal at lunch which can sustain them upto the following day[lunch until lunch]. This has given me more courage as it has made the school to  number 10 out of nearly 60 schools and this has been achieved because of the kids school attendance which is at 94%.

Last week at Kileva Eastfield School,we had two cases of kids fainting in school because of hunger and although i normally try and supply maize and beans,my capability has been too minimal and thus iam asking for help. I know you are people with many friends and we hope with the help of friends and wellwishers, the kids can get a meal in a day.

Thanks and thanks again for your continued support.

 

Regards,

 

Kilele

 

[Cliff: If you'd like to make a donation to buy a lunch for the Kileva Eastfield School kids go to the Gifts & Donations page of the Kilevafoundation.com web site and select the 3rd gift down in the table to make a donation by credit/debit card or by Paypal.]

 

 

Effect of weather on health & education at Kileva Eastfield

From:  Stephen M Mwambua
             Kileva Eastfield Headteacher

Eastfield school kids

Eastfield school kids

Eastfield kids on way home from school

Diseases and Traditional Remedies

From: Margaret Kiriro

Diseases

The common diseases which people suffer are:

• Malaria
• Asthma
• Cholera/typhoid/light dysentery
• Tuberculosis
• Skin diseases/scabbis, small pox, chicken pox.

Traditional Remedies

• In our community we used to have people who used to treat and cure different diseases, these are called medicine people (Waganga). These people used particular trees and plants to get medicine to treat the people.
• The barks of trees, leaves and plants roots were used and some from animals and birds.  Some people had special skills to treat specific illnesses such as wounds and fractures.  Some diseases were considered to be curses, e.g. leprosy, epilepsy.  This meant that some individuals were to be performed to appease the ancestors.

Kileva Dispensary, Kirumbi

Report by Margaret Kiriro
Summer 2010, Mwakoma, Kenya

The Kileva Dispensary in Kirumbi village was started by Mr. Cliff Evans and the Foundation Stone laid in 2008.

Dispensary foundations, Oct 2007

It has been built in phases from:  foundation, wall to lintal, roofing, plastering/flooring, windows and doors installation, Toilet (pit latrine).

It’s with courage and hard work of donors and well-wishers that the two compartments (two rooms) are through.

For the Dispensary to be given to the Government there are procedures to be followed:-

• The community should submit their Minutes to the Sub-locational Development Committee –
  • who will submit them to the Locational Development Committee
  • who will submit them to the Divisional Development Committee
  • who will submit them to the District Development Committee
  • who will pass them to the Government

and hence the supply of medicine and staff, maybe two nurses, will be done.

Kileva Dispensary, Oct 2008

Kirumbi villagers used to be converging under the tree shades for meetings.

Currently the Dispensary plays a major role as a Community Centre.

• Meetings are done there
• Vaccinations by public health officials is normally done there
• Relief food from USAID or World Vision is stored and later divided to the villagers there
• It’s also like a village court, e.g. if a lady has been impregnated by a man, 10 village elders from all the 10 villages in Sagalla come and do the casing at the venue where the man/boy can be forced to marry the lady/girl or a big fine to be imposed to the accused.

Kileva Dispensary, July 2010

Generally the Kirumbi Dispensary plays a major role in the village of Kirumbi.

Children’s Health and Development

From Margaret Kiriro

Mwakoma, Kenya

All the kids from Pre-school to Standard 3 are doing very well.  Although sometimes there are much troubles in the village which sometimes pulls us back in education wise.

Water shortage

During the drought spell, there is always shortage of water and sometimes lack of food.  Some days the kids don’t come to school because of this.  Like when at night they sleep hungry, this makes the kid to be so weak in such a way that when he/she comes to school he/she just sleep on the desks, yawning not understanding what the teacher is speaking/teaching.  Also if there is no water at their homes the kids don’t come to school because no water for washing clothes, no water for bathing and also for cooking.

Wild Animals

Sometimes there are those wild animals like elephants, lions and buffalos who visit the villages and stay in the bushy areas.  During this time, people fear moving around when it’s late and early in the morning due to fear.  So this makes the kids remain at home during the weekdays while their learning is supposed to continue.  The school syllabus does not know all these incoming problems.  They all occur just naturally.  But when the exams come it’s when you realise children failing the exams due to some unavoidable circumstances like those.

Lack of Medical Facilities

The Mwakoma village also has one problem in it.  There is not a nearby hospital in it.  When the children fall sick, we always get problems of seeking health assistance because it’s up to you to travel up to Voi.  It’s when you get medication which is too expensive on transport.  Poor transport systems make us board either tuk-tuks or taxis which are very expensive compared to normal matatus (Nissan mini-bus).  When we are short of funds we even go to the shops to buy the pain killers to assist the kids, but this does not help the kids, its up to we find money and ensure the kids who are sick get proper medication.

By the time I was having my own motorbike (pik-pik) I used to help the kids through it.  It was much faster than those other means.  I could take the driver and the kid and rush him/her to the hospital as soon as he/she falls sick.  The pik-pik was less expensive as I had to buy only petrol and I charged nothing only for the kids to get proper medical diagnosis for proper medical prescription.  But now it’s very hard for me as the motorbike is still not done yet and the insurance people have done nothing so far.  I don’t know where and how I am going to start working on it.  The repair is quite expensive.

Absenteeism

Sometimes the role goes down because of normal happenings, like the kids taking transfers due to death occurrence, maybe to one of their parents or guardians death.  So one is forced to leave the school and he/she goes to another school and starts a new life there where he/she lives under different person as a guardian.

Like last term we had a kid who transferred after his grandmother’s death.  He himself is an orphan.  He used to live with his grandmother.  After his grandmother’s death he was taken by his uncle and now he lives with him there at his home.  He is no longer in our school.  The boy is called Edwin Mwamunga.  You can even confirm this from the list of the pen-pals.  He never replied to the letter of his pen-pal.

Some of the kids here are single parented.  Sometimes it happens the mother gets a man to marry.  She gets married and she leave with the rest of her kids to the new place where she is being married.  Like Farida Nyamawi and Barika Nyamawi, one for Class 1 and the other one for Class 2 left with their mother when she got married.

Those are some of the ways which hinders our education here in Mwakoma.  But we hope all will be well as time goes.  We pray to God that He gives us guidance, protect us, change our climate and our surroundings so that our way of living will be changed.  This is because in each week of every month we always get some cases of different types of illnesses from different kids.

Illness

There are kids who have chronic illness and coughs.  They fall sick mostly than others.  Some are asthmatic, some suffer from chronic Malaria, so we always try as much as we can to take them to the hospitals as soon as the problems start or emerge because most parents here are poor and have no means of getting money once they have problems.  So it’s only us here in Kileva who carry this burden.