Kisumu Internship - first week

I started my internship on Friday with the OGRA foundation On Friday I met with several people on staff and then accompanied several people on visits to rural primary schools. We took the organizations Land Rover which we definitely needed to navigate a lot of the rural roads. The organization runs a health clinic in Ombeyi where people can come for very affordable and sometimes free health care. The facility is equipped with a pharmacy, laboratory, several exam rooms, a maternity ward and bed occupancy for about 30-40 people. The facility also is a VCT (voluntary counseling and testing) for HIV. We provide testing services and then follow-up support counseling with our staff. The organization also provides free anti-retroviral drugs for 294 patients with 424 on the waiting list. Nyanza Province in western Kenya has the highest prevalance of HIV in the country with about 37% of the population being HIV positive.

We have been going to the primary schools to photgraph some of the children as part of their family's registration for the National Hospital Insurance Fund. Through this program, the familes can become eligible to receive free treatment at our health clinic. I have done a lot of editing of pictures and organizing of files since we have to submit the information to the government soon.

Today I spent the day at the organizations feeding center. The feeding center is located near one fo the rural primary schools. We provide 2 meals a day, 6 days a week for about 30 children presently. For many of the children, the meals they receive through OGRA may be their only food for the day. The feeding center has seen great success with classroom attendence increasing and performance improving. Several of the headmasters we spoke to told us how difficult it is to teach children who are hungry. By 10am, the children can not concentrate. The feeding center was built through the generosity of Kenyan Orphan Project who has currently been visiting with us this week. They are looking to build a youth center for the children that can also be used for community education purposes. One of my projects for the internship will be working with OGRA to analyze the operations of the feeding center. I am interested in examining the menu to determine areas where we need to introduce new and different foods. Fruits and meat are very expensive so they are often lacking from the menu at the feeding center. A balanced diet provides these children crucial vitamins and nutrients during these important development periods.

One of my other main projects will be in conjunction with the International School of Medicine and Applied Technology, an OGRA Foundation project. ISMAT is a comprehensive community-response tertiary college that trains under-privileged and vulnerable youth. The college currently teaches 72 students. I will be contributing as a guest lecturer/tutorial fellow for the Community Health and Development program. I am looking forward to this knowledge exchange with the students since we can learn from each other's backgrounds and experiences.

I will also be working with the organizations webmaster to improve on the website. We are looking to expand our networking by linking with our partners' websites to increase awareness about OGRA. We are also looking to expand our fundraising capacity by increasing ways for people to donate directly to OGRA programs.