Dental and eye clinics

When the Michigan team came last Spring, they donated a portable dental chair and eye clinic. Both were developed by Steve Saint's organization - I-TEC. The eye clinic has hundreds of glasses and an easy way to help determine which pair of glasses will improve the patents's vision. Both the portable dental clinic and the eye clinic will travel with us when we do medical mission out reaches. When not being used in the field, both clinics are used in the what if? Medical Clinic.

Both of the clinics expand the ability of the PFC medical team to help the materially poor in Maururi slum. It is wonderful when a team comes and leaves equipment like the dental and eye clinics which helps the team on the ground serve thousands of people for years to come.

PFC is grateful to the Michigan team for raising the funds to purchase these clinics.

Connie

Broken...again

Here is an update written by Bridgette after we went with Peter and Charles to make an mHealth visit in Maurui slum. It is never easy to go to the home of someone who lives in the slum and who is sick. Our staff do it everyday. They are helping those they serve.

From Bridgette

One of the most exciting things happening at Partners For Care here is our medical clinic in Marurui slum. Last year, when I was here the clinic had just opened. In this one year it has become a real Godsend to so many in this area.

Also this year, PFC was chosen by Sana (a team from. Harvard and MIT) and Global Heed to field test mHealth - healthcare using mobile phones. Here's how it works... a PFC staff person takes the mobile phone and goes to a sick person's house in the slum. They take their vital signs, collect personal data, photograph the patient and upload all of this into the device, which is immediately transmitted to our clinician at the clinic. The clinician then triages the patient making one of four decisions:

1. If an emergency, advises the patient to go to a hospital
2. Advises the patient to come into the clinic to be seen
3. Advises the patient to come to the clinic for medication
4. Or asked the PFC staff to provide information to the patient to address their symptoms

This device can literally change the way health care can be done in a developing nation. And all of it is free to those in abject poverty. Further, because a medical record has been established in the computer system, it gives PFC vital information necessary to follow up with the patient... and it's all paperless!
Thus far, the implementation has been going very well, and allows PFC to triage and treat many sick people who might not ever have access to health care. The program will be one of the classes taught at Harvard this next spring on Global Health.

Before leaving in a few days, I wanted to spend a day down at the clinic with the PFC staff there. I was invited to go out with Peter on a follow up home visit. As we walked deeper and deeper into the slum, I realized I had no idea just how bad the conditions were. As we entered the one room, dirt floor shack where 9 people live, I sat and watched as a mother held her listless baby girl. She had been diagnosed with environmental asthma... most likely caused by the burning of the black coal in the same room they sleep in!

As I sat there, I was heartbroken as God reminded me how incredibly blessed I am... and that no one should ever have to live like those I saw today! The scene still haunts me as I write. As I lay my head down tonight with a soft pillow under my head, clean sheets over my body and a mosquito net around my bed, I pray that I will always feel heartbroken over what I saw today... because without that, I would forget just how much God has blessed me and that He has blessed me to bless others. Peter and Charles go deep into the slum every single day. Their hearts break too... and that is why they do it.

Partners For Care's medical work here in Kenya is indeed making a huge difference... as they continue to show this community that they are not forgotten. Through medical treatment, community health initiatives, bed net distribution, HIV testing and education and free medical camps, they are truly changing their nation, one patient at a time. I am so humbled to be a part of it.


Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Favorite photos from Connie's and Bridgette's Trip

Bridgette and a newborn

Bridgette and Connie observing the bead program

Bridgette and the CHW

Bridgette in the field

Child searching for water

Debra and the children

Children watching us

Connie helping with Adan

Debra and the children

Pastor Hirbo rescuing Adan

Pastor Hirbo's children in the new dresses

Sweet boy

Sweet children

They are in wonder of Bridgette's hair

Volleyball In A Slum

Bridgette has done a great job of explaining one of our programs here in Kenya...girls volleyball. This morning I listened to John Maxwell's DVD on 5 Levels of Leadership - position, permission, production, people development and pinnacle. Pinnacle level of leadership means being a leader people follow because of who you are and what you represent.

I was reminded how Partners for Care is about helping young people here develop their God-given abilities to be pinnacle level leaders. Leaders people follow because they are followers of Jesus - the greatest leader of all times and because they do as Christ commanded - care for the orphans and the children and serve the poor.

Do all the good you can - wherever and when ever you can and do your work the best you can undo the Lord. That is what Bridgette and I have seen the PFC staff doing here in Kenya.

Connie.


One of the programs at Partners For Care involves sports-particularly mens' soccer and ladies' volleyball. Because of our relationship with Peace Passers (www.peacepassers.org), which I found out about through a dear tennis teammate in Atlanta...the men's soccer teams have been equipped with uniforms, cleats, etc.... Obviously, the girls' volleyball team does not require as much; however, the more equipped they are, the more confident they will feel.

While here, I have had the pleasure of getting to know the middle school age girls on the team. These young ladies are at such impressionable ages, and their coach Justus (one of the PFC Temples of Worship musicians), has invested much time and energy into their lives. For that reason, I have seen and heard amazing stories of the bond being created both on and off the volleyball court. They are sharing their faith, their friendships and their struggles...and Justus is teaching them how to be pure sexually, faithful spiritually and committed to get their educations no matter their circumstances. Their stories bring me to tears ( she told me not to cry!) as they live day to day for their basic needs to be met. Life is incredibly difficult for these girls...yet they are stronger and more disciplined than many adults I know. I am in awe of their resolves...and can see how the sport of volleyball is building so much more than athleticism among them. I listened as they shared how they scraped together 10 schillings each to help a teammate in crisis...or how they took turns around the clock coming to Justus' bedside and praying when he was very sick this past spring.

Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of going to one of their matches. As we drove deep into the village where the match was to be played, I was shocked at how badly these people were living. All that came to mind was "Our slum's better than your slum!" Its all relative, isn't it? I mean, we compare our "stuff" to others all the time, right? We've all heard the saying...One man's junk is another man's treasure. But as I stood there in the middle of a slum in East Africa watching these girls play with simple t-shirts and no shoes...I was reminded just how important this program is on so many levels. You see, to them, it didn't matter the conditions around them or the fact that they had no shoes to wear. They were playing their hearts out and loving every minute of it!

After the game/match, Justus used this opportunity to talk to them all (including the other team) about character, perseverance and personal growth through education, etc.... By modeling this lifestyle himself, he is changing the direction of these young girls lives forever. We played a movie on the projector that Connie and I brought from the U.S. (on a concrete wall) and we popped maize over an open flame for snacks. You should have seen how much fun the girls were having! It will indeed be one of my fondest moments here as I have formed lasting relationships with several of these girls. I can't wait to see how God will use them to be a shining example for others...all because of a simple sport called volleyball in a slum in East Africa!