Drug Deal

Last Friday we were in charge of organizing a medical camp with Children’s Fund International. This camp was target orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS. Children are considered AIDS orphans if one or both of their parents have died of AIDS. Many of these children are HIV positive themselves as a result of mother to child transmission.

This was a follow-up camp to capture two sites they were not able to service during the last camp due to an overwhelming turnout of 321 children. Turnout was much smaller this time but it was still a great opportunity for me to see how these operations are carried out.

Francis and I spent the morning driving around the countryside mobilizing our mobilizers to mobilize the orphans J It was a beautiful day for driving but we were met with unprepared mobilizers who hadn’t completely done their job of notifying OVCs and following up to ensure they would show up because the tea is ready to be harvested now and they’ve been busy in the fields picking tea by hand.

Because many of these people don’t have phones and have to walk great distances it is much more labor intensive to spread the word than sending out a mass e-mail like I wish we could do. We ended up trying to contact some OVCs ourselves but were met with the longest, steepest hill I have ever seen and taxed our motorbike beyond capacity with 3 passengers. Yes, three passengers. The Kenyan concept of personal space is much smaller than the requisite 6 inches North Americans require. I always end up in the middle since Francis is driving and we pick people up as we go. No one uses the gas going downhill here (I’m not sure if they’re conserving gas or the hills are too steep) so when we go downhill we smash right together and I quickly become intimate with the stranger we have just picked up.

After dusting ourselves off and fixing the motorbike we gave up on finding children and headed to the site where we met up with the team from CFI. They bring a doctor and several staff to distribute medicine. Prior to their arrival children are seen by the school nurse and have their list of prescriptions ready. As you can see drugs are handed out off the top of a truck and then someone explains to the children how and when to take them. Most come with some sort of caregiver so that is helpful but some do not.

As you can see from the photos these kids are adorable. I know they look a little pathetic in the pictures but that is because they were quite serious about having their photos taken. If only I had a second camera to capture them squealing with laughter as they all crowded around my digital camera to see themselves on screen!