Some of the friends of Global Health Partnerships may also have seen the recent articles in the NYT and the Guardian that graphically describes the pitifulSomalis arriving in Kenya, victims of a years-long drought.   A few people have asked whether our project is involved with famine relief.   I am somewhat relieved to tell you that our project is more than 150 miles southwest of Dadaab.

Machakos District in the Eastern Province where Kisesini Dispensary is located has also experience drought (the not of the severity described in the articles) and as you’ve read if you check our website or receive our updates, the people, especially the children served by our clinic are also suffering as indicated by the degree of stunting (small height for age) that we’ve observed when we examined, weighe, measured, and compared children to standard growth curves.

Angelo Tomedi and some of our team have just arrived in Kenya (7/18/2011) and will soon be back at the clinic. One of the objectives of this visit is to follow up on children and families to whom GHP provided emergency food rations.  We will also be exploring the possibility of a small  irrigation project in an area near the Athi River.

A previous project funded by donations allowed the community near the clinic to build an earthen dam across an arroyo, seen in the attached photo empty, but when it rained last year, the dam filled with water.  And at least temporarily providing water.