Issue no 3, 1999 -- English edition -- home
Page: -- Contents -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, (6), 7, 8
Homa Bay on Lake Victoria in Kenya-name actually means "the fever bay"-is where the Doctor Bank has a base for a jeep-doctor relay. Dr Marie-Lou Doude van Troostwijk, from the Netherlands, sends her report from there.
"I was there during the rain season, and the city-or should one say village-was a just one large pool of mud. Out in the clinics, everything revolved around malaria, malaria, malaria.
"The enormous mass of water hyacinths that cover a large part of the bay are an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes."
As far as the financial resources allow, the Doctor Bank supplies people both here and at other jeep-doctor relays with mosquito nets, the only now known reasonably safe way to protect against malaria.
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Sunset by Lake Victoria on the Kenyan side, a region where the Doctor Bank always has one surgeon and three jeep-doctor relays. |
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There are also happy children in Africa. Görel Day-Wilson found these smiling faces in Homa Bay by Lake Victoria. |
"The problems are being solved!"
So optimistically expresses Dr Sven Bobeck, from Landscrona, Sweden, the situation on the Island of Pemba in the Indian Ocean, where the Doctor Bank has had a gynaecologist relay since 1992. Dr Bobeck, gynaecologist and strong advocate of continued involvement, has worked there no fewer than ten times.
In the previous issue of this newsletter, some doubts were expressed about continuing the relay on Pemba because of problems with hygiene. The garbage problem is now solved, the residence is to be repaired, and a new headlamp was bought for use when the electricity fails. Through the Erik's Help, more medical supplies will arrive this autumn.
Dr Bobeck also says:
"That we are needed on Pemba for at least one or two more years is in my opinion undisputable. The island has 400,000 inhabitants and about 10,000 births per year, but there are only three gynaecologists including ours. The most important task for women's medical care is to reduce mortality for mothers and infants. This was tragically high when we started on Pemba seven years ago."
"The days at the clinics start with one of the local staff teaching the waiting patients about personal hygiene, teeth and mouth hygiene, correct diet, use of latrines, pure water, family planning, etc. The patients are interested and want to learn."
Dr Ulla Vansjö, from Mjölby, Sweden, makes this report from the jeep-doctor relay Ugunja in Kenya, and continues:
"I handed out 300 bottles in the Water for Life project. The mothers were instructed in how to fill the bottles with available water and let them stay in the sun at least four hours. After that the water can be drunk. The families will be interviewed later and an evaluation made."
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Finally, a solid and secure medicine cabinet for the Doctor Bank jeep-doctors in Maseno. Coordinator Erik Hoel (left) and Dr Arne Thorfinn. |
Mark Rotary Club in Kinna, Sweden, is a real mainstay of support. Just before last Christmas, the Doctor Bank received 125,000 Crowns (over USD 15,000), the proceeds from the autumn jazz concert! In addition, Dr Göran Norén received 10,000 Crowns (about USD 1200) as a stipend for the further training of nurse Mulenga Chella, from Chikankata Hospital in Zambia where Dr Norén and his wife Sylvia have worked every year since the Doctor Bank was founded. Add to this the Mark RC drive with sales of towels, which continues and will mean further large contributions. The driving force behind these exemplary efforts is as before former prosecutor Curt Tilly. And now, it is soon time for another concert.
Dutch nurse Tineke van Iersel accompanied, at own cost, the doctors Toon de Ruiter and Loek Peters to Garissa Hospital in Kenya. One result of her work there is a "milk relay" for sick children.
"The hospital does not fund milk for the children, and the staff wondered if I could help them," she explains. "And that I will. Here at home, I shall raise money to send to the Doctor Bank's loyal colleague Mr Linyonyi Wamabonga. I trust him completely. He will buy the milk, and in that way the children will receive something strengthening each day."