Sister Freda’s Medical Centre in Kitale, Kenya, serves a rural population of 500,000 and saw 4,800 patients last year, including those treated with its mobile clinic in outlying areas. Freda Robinson left her job as the head nurse at a private hospital in Kitale to open a medical clinic in 1994 to serve the poor she had seen every day on her way to work in the city, some crawling to get to the government hospital there. Some died before they could reach it.
Sister Freda’s clinic has since grown to include surgical, dental and eye centers, a primary school, a feeding program and a nursing school. Project C.U.R.E.’s Needs Assessor found the facility especially needed incubators for newborns, a delivery table, a generator, surgical instruments, dental tools, mattresses and ten additional hospital beds to be able to accept more patients. Thanks to many generous donors, a C.U.R.E. Cargo container was shipped in June 2013 carrying $358,284 in medical donations for the Centre.
In October, we followed up with a C.U.R.E. Clinic to Sister Freda’s! Six nurses, two doctors, one non-medical volunteer and Project C.U.R.E.’s own Megan Prentice and Corinne Domahidy were in Kenya for 11 days and saw nearly 2,000 patients of all ages. A big thank you to Vitamin Angels for vitamin A supplements, which were given to all the youngsters. The trip included a hair-raising van ride to Father Reauben's church near the small town of Gatundu, outside of Nairobi, to provide free care to several hundred local residents there, too.
Neonatal resuscitation training was also a big part of this C.U.R.E. Clinic. Almost all babies who don’t breathe at birth can be revived using the simple interventions taught by the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Helping Babies Breathe® curriculum. Master Trainer Patty Kelly taught the Helping Babies Breathe techniques to 27 students at Sister Freda’s nursing school while she was there. They found the hands-on practice with the life-like newborn mannequins Project C.U.R.E. brought along especially useful. Big smiles all around as these Kenyan students got their Helping Babies Breathe certificates!
