Map of Kenya.

The Aim

The main aim of the Kenya Clinic Project is to assist and support the running of the Clinic in providing health care to the inhabitants of Mpeketoni.

The SHARE Foundation primarily uses advocacy and collaborates with other philanthropic agencies to reach the aim of this project.

The SHARE Foundation also welcomes donations to cover specific expenses of the Clinic such as the purchase of laboratory equipment, medicines and other necessary items.

The Clinic

The Clinic is run by the missionary congregation of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart. It is located in the village of Baharini, within Mpeketoni and is named after the foundress of the congregation Maria Teresa Nuzzo. It houses an out-patient service together with a mother and child health care programme including an Expanded Programme of Immunization. The Clinic is also equipped with a laboratory diagnostic facility and in certain circumstances provides in-patients care.

Medical services are provided free of charge by the Clinic, however, patients are asked to pay a nominal fee for any prescribed drugs and medications received.

Mpeketoni

Mpeketoni is a settlement scheme on the coast of Kenya and home to an estimated 35,000 people. The Kikuyu tribe, which is traditionally a farming community, mostly populates this region. Other tribes include the Luo and Kamba as well as the original local Swahili people. The area is reached by road from Mombasa or from the harbour opposite the island of Lamu by a main dust road.

The settlement area was created in the early 1970s to settle landless Kenyans. The land has since been painstakingly transformed to arable land for farming. The main cash crops include maize, cotton, cassava, cashew nuts, mangoes, bananas and sugarcane. Farming methods are primitive and there are no irrigation systems to maintain the corps through periods of drought.

Dedication

The Daughters of the Sacred Heart have been one of the first to initiate a health programme in the area when they provided a mobile clinic service. Later the Sisters managed their services from health centres. During the 1997 floods they were crucial in providing health care to the overwhelming amount of patients seeking assistance. The Sisters are committed to continue their mission in providing high quality health care.