Most people wouldn't spend thousands of dollars to travel thousands of miles to spend 8 days in a slum in Kenya, Africa, but Marlene Free did. She was one of 73 Rotarians and Non-Rotarians, representing 13 countries who took part in the Rotary International medical mission to Nairobi, Kenya. The mission was called 'You Can Change The World One Child At A Time'.
Home to over 500,000 who came to find a better way of life: the slums of Mukuruo.
Speaking to fellow Rotarians at the weekly Bainbridge Rotary meeting, Mrs. Free stated that she was at a Rotary International Conference in California when she saw a brochure for the medical mission. After speaking with fellow Georgian Rotarian, Sally Platt, she booked her flight for the trip.
Mrs. Free stated that this was the largest humanitarian trip that Rotary had ever sponsored at the cost of approximately 1 million dollars. Along with Rotary International there were several other agencies and organizations as well as individuals that participated in the mission.
The group saw over 10,000 patients in the 8 days of the mission and 3 work sites were set-up. There were dental teams in Korogocho and Mathare and in Mukuruo optical teams, dental teams and medical teams. Mrs. Free spent her time in Mukuruo.
Every morning and afternoon, hundreds of kids would line the streets as the mission team would pass waving and shouting 'Hi You, Hi You'.
Mrs. Free stated that every morning when the team would travel the 15 miles from the hotel to the site, a trip that took one and a half hours, there would be long lines waiting with some of the people having walked 15 or 20 miles. She stated that each person was registered and it was determined which clinic they would go to.
Waiting patiently with no food, only water.
She stated that for most of the people this was the first time many had ever seen a doctor as there was no money for medical treatment and there are no government services. Most of the patients and families spent the day waiting to be seen.
Mrs. Free spent her day doing weight and height on the patients. She stated that dehydration was a large problem along with malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases. She also stated that some of the doctors on the trip were seeing for the first time some diseases that they had only read about before.
The Optical team performed eye exams and the Dental team pulled lots of teeth. Mrs. Free stated that after the first day, they moved the children waiting to be seen by the dental team as there tended to be alot of crying.
Many of the children seen at the Dental Clinic had teeth extracted. Here the children are getting a lesson on brushing their teeth. For most of the children it was the first time.
Challenges to the team were met with solutions, eye charts were taped on outside walls, babies were weighed by weighing both the mother and baby and they just the mother and subtracting the weight and pills were all counted out by hand.
Mrs. Free showed pictures of Mukuruo. She stated that the population was over 500,000 and that approximately 400 children die each day from malnutrition and diseases. Rent is paid to live in the slum. Many, she said come to find a better life only to find no work.
Closing, Mrs. Free shared some notes that the children wrote to the mission members. One of them read, "To my dear friends, thank you very much for help you gave me. I was having tooth problems and when it was gone pulled out today lost feeling OK. Otherwise I wish this is not your last care for me and others in our slum in Mukuruo. I am in class 3 and I am boy 10 years old. My father died in the year 2002 and my mother died in the year 2004. I am living with older sister who is 16 years old and our 2 small sisters and my taking care of us. Thank you very much. God bless you."
