Rain Today – Day 3

Here is my third blog. If you haven’t seen the new website which was launched last week have a look at http://www.funzi.org.uk/

It is still having material added but you get an idea of how is looking now . You can read my blogs from there too.

It rained in Bodo today. We could see the dark clouds on the mainland and the clouds had shapes that almost looked like small tornadoes. By the time we crossed the water from Funzi it had stopped but there were great rivers of rain water rushing down the mud path that acts as a street.

We laughed as we saw large groups of small children rushing along chasing bottle tops . A Kenyan version of Pooh sticks. But we were quickly reminded of where we are. We were told not to enter the rain waters ourselves. As the rain flushes out the pools of standing water where people wash, go to the toilet and do their laundry there is a cocktail of potential illness in water which looks at first glance like fun.

We were also told that we risked catching ring worm. You see so many children here with the signs of ringworm on their skin. It’s something we are working to get a grip on and treat with special clinics. That and jiggers. The horrible worms which get into your skin and slowly poison you. I had one a couple of years ago and it was horrible, very painful at night. You have to have them taken out with a sharp object and often from areas of soft flesh.

 Ali’s small son who is named after me -Ashley- had a full size one removed this week . He screamed and cried for a long time afterward. We regularly see children infested with the horrible things. Often around their nails and between their toes. All of this a stark reminder of why our clinics matter so much.

Some good news and some bad – Day Two

Great news about Mwanakombo -the teenager who had polio and cannot walk. Our efforts to get her back into school have really paid off. She only went back in May after missing classes for years.

In the end of term exams she came 4th out of over 45 children. The teachers say she is a joy to teach and she is so enthusiastic. The school were so reluctant to take her because of her disability but we kept saying ….this is a bright and able child.

She is proving us right and I am so delighted. No matter what problems come the way of the trust – finding funds or dealing with awkward officials- this makes it all worthwhile.

We have also found a specialist doctor who we hope will help Mwanakombo get better and walk one day. I also saw one of the three boys we have been treating for sickle cell disease yesterday. He looked so well and was out playing with his friends like any ten year old boy. We are due to take him and the other two to the special sickle cell disease clinic later this week.

The clinics are a little quieter than normal. The levels of illness can be down to the time of year and the weather. We have to be ready because when the rains come it can bring cholera and it’s only a year or so ago that we lost ten people to the illness abd in a nearby village a whole classroom of children were wiped out.

But the lower level of patients is also a sign that we are getting across to people messages about health and cleanliness.

Two bad pieces of news. Our ambulance needed major repairs and we had a bill for twelve hundred pounds. Then today a computer in the new computer centre blew up. When funds are tight these are major headaches for us . But with everyone so committed back home I know we will fac these trails like we have done in the past

Can you help? – Day One – July 2011

It’s our first full day and already the list of work needing to be done is already building up. I cannot speak Swahili but I do know a few words. The one I  keep hearing from our manager Ali- as people approach him- means later. I know that each of these people is wanting to ask me to help or do something for them.  He is trying to protect me from the full onslaught within hours of getting here. But we will get round to seeing all of them and wherever possible help with the medical care they are requesting.

 

The village chairman has also approached us and wants to meet. No doubt about a long held ambition to have secondary school here. Primary education is free but secondary education is expensive and most people cannot afford it. So far our efforts to find a way forward have been frustrated.

 

In the meantime  there are basic jobs to do like making the ambulance safe. The state of the roads here means that the tyres wear out constantly and the suspension has to be replaced. Without the car and the boat we cannot run an effective and emergency medical service so while it’s a painful cost we cannot ignore it.

 

Today I will also visit Mwanakombo. the teenage girl who had polio and cannot walk. (read her story on our website) I am told she is doing really well at school since we bought her a wheel chair and persuaded the school to take her .  Now we have to get a balance between her education needs and the important visits to the hospital for physiotherapy.

 

On Monday I am going in search of special boots for her to help her in her bid to walk again.

 

Even at this early stage I can see the huge task we continue to face and the need to find more supporters to cover the costs of helping people who have so little but deserve to be free from pain, first and getting a decent education. Finding people who will give monthly amounts remains paramount and for reasons you can see every day here.

 

Ashley

Latest News

There is nothing like being elevated to a great height and then being instantly dropped from it !

Today the Bodo school -built by the Funzi and Bodo trust- was opened. Under a giant mango tree the school assembled along weith parents, teachers and Government officials.

As guest of honour I was introduced as Mr. Peatman . The children were then invited to chant it . Until the deputy head pointed out it was actually Peatfield at which point the exercise was repeated. Then a group of teenage girls came to perform a poem they had written about me . It was in Swahili so I they had to stop every few senteneces for translation. The translation was very much abridged. So long senetences were reduced to just – you saved us ! At the end the host informed me that they were saying that I had saved them just like Jesus. This I found a little odd in a Muslim community like Bodo although I know they regard Jesus as a very important prophet.

I hastened to assure them that I wasn’t like Jesus really .

I needn’t have bothered as I was brought crashing to the ground. Events were then stopped as the school chairman announced to all those assembled that I must be moved from where I was sitting as he feared that as I was balding the sun might burn my head. This happened not once but three times during the event.

The event was ended – as most things are here in Kemnya- with prayer. The imam asking that I should be given very long life . Good I thought -earlier this week I was told I would go to paradise if I were a Muslim. So having failed that at least I thought maybe I would get a long life in the here and now. But I was informed this was so that i could bring more….and more …and more to Bodo.

It seems I have at last found a purpose and value in my life.

But all of this aside it was wonderful to hear the sub chief talking about the Funzi and Bodo Trust bringing this rural area from the third world into the first and helping reach the millenium goals. He pointed out that no other school -primary or secondary- in this region had the facilities we had given Bodo school. ..

He reminded people that in 1960 when the old school opened only 40 children attended. Today it has over 400. But until this year three quarters had to sit on the mud floor because there were no desks.

Today every child has a desk. There is a brand new school, new kindergarten, cook house and resource centre. All thanks to the hard work put in by the charity’s supporters.

Latest News

A teenage girl who cannot walk and who is little more than a skeleton below her neck was taken by the Trust to hospital yesterday for the start of a ten week course of physiotherapy – three times a week. Mwanakombo says she is 15 and she has suffered like this for neatly eight years. She has been left in the care of a women recovering from TB as her mother has moved away and her farther is believed to be dead. Her disbility has meant that most of her muscles have wasted away, She is a dead weight to lift so it took a team of thjree of our charity workers to get her into the car and to the hospital. She is so bad that when she is treated she screams throughout and her bones dislocate. It was enough to reduce one of our team to near tears.

But the medical team at the hospital believe that with the right treatment she could be helped to recover. As well as taking her for specialist treatment the Trust is now putting in place a programme of home care. Nutrition is a key issue and the girl is now getting three cooked meals a day with an emphasis on a good blalaced diet to help build her strength.

Tomorrow we take her to hospital; again when she will suffer a great deal. But despite this she smiles for us and promises to keep going. She lives in great poverty and her bed which she sits on every day, all day is broken and the room dirty and infested with bed bugs. We are going to clean the room , paint the walls,, put up curtains and get her a new bed and mattress. We want to give her hope and improve her quality of life in between the pain and discomfort.

Tomorrow is my last day here, I will see the official opening of the new school we have built at Bodo . A big moment in the story of this very poor village.

Latest News – November

Today we took a five year old with sickle cell disease to hospital. He cannot be cured but we can help control the condition. We were able to get medicine to heal some feet wounds and we are investigating sending him to a monthly special clinic about three hours from here .

We also took 8 year old Sharka who has terminal skin cancer to the eye hospital. We were able to get her glasses and eye drops as she struggles to see. Investigations at this hospital suggest the cancer is inside her eye lids causing her to scratch her lids and in the process damaging here eyes. I feel so sorry for her as she is such a gentle child . On the way back I took her to an ice cream parlour. On one level it seemed a little pathetic as a response to her condition but bringing any pleasure into her life seems important now. We are awaiting news of an operation on the tumours on her tongue.

We have also been investigating further our ambitions to build a high school for poor children in the two villages who cannot go to school beyond primary level. This is because of the huge costs and the fact these are very poor children.

Tomorrow there is a meeting with the chief education official in the district. From Monday we will be taking the teenager who cannot walk to the hospital three times a week for physio and also the tailor who had the major leg operation.

I hear that baby Idris who we have been treating is walking and making good progress.

I am looking forward to seeing him. It is all hard work here and long days but the cases speak for themselves as to why this is necessary.

Latest News – November

Friday 26 November 2010

A line of women with sick chidren were waiting for me this morning- all asking for help. These Bodo women have no other way of getting medical assistance for their youngsters and are desperate. One was a small baby which had broken its leg. The family had raised the money to have a pin put into it- but now couldn’t afford to have it taken out. So the hospital was doing nothing until the money could be found.

Another child was struggling to breathe and had throat problems . His record book said further investigation was needed but as there were no funds no more could be done. We are now arranging for five families and a couple of elderly people to be talken to hospital for further investigation.

Our plans for building a high school at Bodo to cater for those children (the majority) who cannot afford to go beyond primary level appear to have difficulties. The official rules are based on how many other schools are within a certain vicinity of the proposed site. On that basis we are stopped from going ahead . But these rules take no account of whether the children in that catchment area can afford to pay the fees at the other schjools – about 90 per cent of the children here are in that position. The senior education officer sent me a personal message of congratulation for the work the charity has done building Bodo and Funzi promary schools which she described as work well done. So this is doubly frustrating

But this isnt the end of the story because we could look at another type of school which teaches practical skills which lead to employment and which would not be governed by this rule. One where children can become skilled arisans .. So we start work on investigating that now. Our two volunteers, John and Anne, from Wales will pick thos up as they are here for nearly three months.

Meanwhile John is working hard on the detail of how to get the computer and resource centre up and running . Anne is taking on care responsibilities for a sick child and getting another parient to regular hospital appointments. They are going to be a huge asset to our work. Tomorrow we have another long list of work to do.