A Busy Monday

How many patients do you think the average U.S. doctor sees on an average day? If you asked me I thought 20-30 patients a day sounds fair. After some research I found out I wasn’t too far from the average and while the numbers range based on practice or specialty - on the low end a highly-specialized doctor will meet and diagnosis close to 20 patients and on the other side of the spectrum an ER doctor may treat nearly 50 patients during a shift.

Taking into account that seeing just 20 patients takes an incredible amount of skill and expertise, it’s all the more amazing when you consider the news that last Monday 160 people were treated at the New Hope Initiative Olorien Community Clinic in Arusha, Tanzania.

One Hundred and Sixty.

The patients were children, parents, uncles, grandparents, boys, girls, men & women - all ages and the reasons for visits likely ranged from common colds and respiratory issues to growth removals, broken bones and positive malaria diagnosis. Now you are probably thinking, “wow those doctors (plural) were busy that day!”

Yes, Dr. Byemba – the head doctor and only doctor on site that day – was busy as he diagnosed & treated the large majority of all these cases. Much like an ER doctor, Dr. Byemba throughout the day will go from the exam room to the operating room multiple times and while the instruments are sterilized in the autoclave for the next procedure, he will see the patients not requiring surgery.

To be honest it would be easy to recognize just Dr. Byemba and his incredible work because what he does on a daily basis astonishes almost everyone that has the chance to spend the day with him. But Dr. Byemba would be the first to say that he couldn’t do this alone. The staff – from the clerk checking patients in and the nurses taking vitals to the lab technicians analyzing samples and the pharmacist distributing medications that in many cases will save someone life – together deserve to be applauded for their hard work.

I was raised to always highlight a job well done and just saying “well done” almost doesn’t seem sufficient when it comes to a person’s health and life. Yet, it’s a great place to start when recognizing the amazing staff that serve this small community in Tanzania six days a week. It is also easy to celebrate when the numbers hit 160 but how much more would you commend their work if you then found out that on Tuesday more than 120 people came, on Wednesday nearly 130 and they averaged that for the rest of the week. On Saturday evening as the front gates closed more than 800 people had passed through the clinic and this small dedicated staff of nurses, technicians, clerks and pharmacists led by Dr. Byemba brought comfort and in many cases healing to a community. When you watch the news and you hear about so many terrible things happening around the world – please take a moment and think about this amazing team in O’Lorien and smile knowing that there are people still doing great things and pursuing work on a daily basis that it so much greater than themselves.

By T.J. Walter - Olorien Clinic Project Director

Help Bring Light into Darkness

Murana Umara has had a very difficult life in Sierra Leone. At an early age his mother became sick. The father took her to a witch doctor and “treated” her. She died in agony a short time later. Three months later, his father died. His brother, sister and he were all alone. With no other choices available the police put them into the care of their elderly grandmother. This strong woman loved them so much but did not have the means to care for them. As times became worse for them and food became more and more scarce, the grandmother sent his sister to the city to live with a woman. This helped for a little while, but when the sister returned the situation became worse than ever. The siblings turned to the streets doing odd jobs or stealing anything they could put their hands on. They were desperate to put food in their stomachs. The situation got to a point that the sister sold her virginity in order to feed the siblings.

This is when the group met Pastor Rogers. He was determined to help the children but had little means of his own. He enrolled them into a church run feeding program and planned to move them into an orphanage he was building. Their lives began to look brighter until a hurricane destroyed the building the Pastor was building. What they did not understand at that point was that God was working in their favor. Shortly, there after Pastor Rogers met an American missionary who connected him to New Hope Initiative. NHI came on board, aided the feeding program, and built the Karen Baird Children’s Home. Murana and his siblings were among the first children to move in. As the children grew to know Christ and gave their life to Him, life began to look positive for them and they had the hope of a good future.

Murana enrolled in school and excelled. His language and writing skills improved. Although quiet in nature, he became very well spoken. It seemed as though he was on the right track and he was thankful to God. That is when he began having headaches.  Soon he was having problems seeing. The local clinic gave him eye drops. With the lack of qualified medical care and doctors his vision worsened quickly. In less than a year he has now become almost completely blind. The young boy can no longer attend school and is becoming discouraged.

Pastor Rogers and I met with the headmaster of a school for the blind. He is willing to bring Murana in for re-habilitation. He feels that within the next 6 to 9 months Murana would be able to learn to read braille, learn to type, and be ready to move back to the children’s home. At that point he would be able to rejoin his class mates in school by using a tape recorder and a typewriter. Please help NHI make this happen for this young boy. He needs to be equipped with all the items necessary at the blind school including the typewriter, tape recorder, a bed and mattress, other school materials, and every-day items. Help NHI prevent this from happening in the future by supporting the Children’s Home each month to provide for better medical care for all of the children in the home.

Thank you and God bless,

Phil d’Entremont - Project Director: Sierra Leone

New Leadership Position in Nairobi

We are pleased to announce that we have added a new position to our staff in Nairobi.  Christopher Gitonga has recently agreed to become New Hope Initiative's Director of Special Projects in Kenya. Chris was born and raised in Nairobi and attended quality educational institutions throughout his childhood and teenage years. Spiritually his life changed dramatically when he began to play basketball at a large youth project called Hope Center in Nairobi. It was through this sports ministry that Chris developed a vibrant personal faith. It was also at Hope Center in 2004 that Chris met and became friends with Kyle Baird who was serving a summer internship between colleges semesters. Chris and Kyle were both in their early twenties at the time and have remained friends for the past decade.

Chris went on to work part time for another non profit organization in Kenya and also to start his own safari company called "Front Seat Safaris". Many of NHI's supporters have met Chris in Nairobi as he has provided logistical support like transportation and lodging for our visiting teams. Chris has proven himself to be an invaluable member of our organization. He is well connected in Nairobi, he has a warm engaging personality, and he has multifaceted abilities to manage different aspects of the ministry.

Chris will serve specifically as the liaison between the NHI board and our newly reorganized school in Kibera, he will supervise construction projects (having served as the general contractor on our recent dining hall construction),  he will be the overseer of the Kibera Penda Project, and serve as logistical support for our visiting teams. Chris is currently single however he is hoping that status will be changing soon as he has a fiancé from Michigan named Kelly Bowman. We are excited to welcome Chris to the NHI family and we are looking forward to many of our friends and supporters developing a close friendship with him. Welcome Chris!

A Day At The Clinic

It’s shortly after 8 a.m. in Arusha, Tanzania and the scene unfolding on the street in front of the New Hope Olorien community clinic, while new to me, is a familiar one for the 15+ member staff and those that live nearby. The street, unpaved and barely wide enough to fit two cars side-by-side quickly fills with dust, commotion and plenty of engine exhaust and it stays that way for much of the morning. People arrive by foot and bicycle, others hitch a ride on a motorcycle or the always entertaining dala dala (a Tanzanian taxi which was likely made to fit 7-8 riders that typically is filled to double that capacity). I watch as older men with canes, young pregnant women, a teenage boy, an entire family with an ailing aunt and an elderly Masaii matriarch - all ages, all backgrounds - all arrive to the clinic looking for answers and relief from their pain.

“This is one of the most popular bus stops in the neighborhood,” Dr. Byemba, the man nearly everyone is coming to see, says to me as we watch people walk through the entrance and begin the check-in process. By the end of today more than 70 patients will pass through his care – “a very slow day,” according to the doctor – by the end of month nearly 3,000 and at year’s end close to 30,000 people will have the chance to answer the question, “Je, ni kuumiza?” or “What is hurting?”

For many people the words “clinic” and “Africa” may conjure up images of tents or rudimentary operating rooms and lines of people haphazardly waiting for medication and while these do exist, the New Hope clinic is far from this reality. Thanks to the generous donations of many of you that are reading this and the work of Dr. Byemba and his staff, the NHI clinic is a top-notch, government accredited medical facility. Instead of temporary tents and disorganization, the NHI clinic is a three, cement building compound with a dedicated lab, x-ray facility, pharmacy, ultrasound, operating room, multiple examination rooms and it utilizes an electronic medical charting system that allows the doctor to track patients and streamline the check-in process much like visiting the doctor in the United States.

By the end of the day, I’ll have the chance to watch Dr. Byemba diagnosis and treat respiratory issues, remove multiple teeth and a cyst, perform a circumcision along with reexamining and evaluating multiple prior treatments on patients including a finger amputation and a child suffering from epileptic symptoms. While I’m reminded of the many patients I saw that day, it’s the faces of the last two patients that have remained consistently in my thoughts as of late.

Joseph was a laborer who started experiencing pain and swelling in his hand. He visited a local clinic near his home where they simply cleaned and scrubbed a small wound on his hand and sent him off with a basic medication for pain (Tylenol). The pain and swelling didn’t stop and after visits to five more clinics and hospitals many of which performed the same treatment all to the same effect, the pain became almost unbearable and he arranged a ride to the NHI clinic on the advice of a friend to see Dr. Byemba. Swollen nearly twice its size, Byemba said his hand was within days of needing complete amputation – remember that Joseph was a laborer who needs both hands to work – but after examining him and seeing where the issue was coming from, a small cut on a finger that became extremely infected, Dr. Byemba removed the finger and within a day the swelling began to subside.  Now, nearly a week later the hand was back to normal with no sign of infection and Joseph was able to resume work.

Godwin is less than a year old and I was in the outdoor waiting area of the clinic as he was carried in by his father late in the afternoon. With his arms and legs dangling motionless beyond his dad’s frame, it was his eyes that were glassed over and rolled back that caught my attention. Soon after he was seen by the doctor I had the chance to learn more about what was wrong. Several months after birth, Godwin developed a fever one day which went undiagnosed and untreated. That fever eventually went on to cause brain and nerve damage that triggered sometimes eight or more epileptic seizures a day. Unable to find a doctor that they could afford that would treat Godwin near their home on the other side of Arusha, they heard about the NHI clinic and soon had the chance to meet with Dr. Byemba. After several tests, Byemba was able to diagnosis and source a prescription that would ease the seizures, the first step in a multi-faceted recovery process. Now several weeks later, Godwin is seizure free and while he still has a long road ahead of him, the family and Dr. Byemba are consulting with a local specialist to do all they can to help Godwin regain basic muscle functions.

These are just two of the hundreds of cases that are occurring each and every day at the clinic. Our goal is to bring more and more of their stories to you throughout the coming year and hopefully it will spur you to action – maybe you have a desire to serve in the clinic (we have a fully-furnished, American style apartment on site that is available), maybe you can support the clinic either financially or sourcing needed medical supplies but nonetheless we hope that you will pray for the clinic and the amazing work that is being done on a daily basis.

Written by T.J. Walter

Great Improvements at Kibera School

As we begin the new year of 2014 we are excited to share with our supporters a great improvement for our ministry in Kibera. The new year brings a brand new facility to our school compound. We have just finished construction of a dining hall and commons building. This brick structure is without question the finest school building in all of Kibera and perhaps the single nicest structure in the entire slum. The building is stone inside and out and houses a new kitchen, with a large secure pantry and pass through serving facility, as well as a seating capacity of almost 200. This will allow the entire student body to be fed in 2 convenient, efficient shifts.  We have been able to feed the children of our school for the part 5 years due to our faithful sponsors however the children have always had to eat standing in the compound with their bowls in their hands. The new hall will allow the students to enjoy a more civilized atmosphere that will continue to help us promote excellence in all phases of the New Hope Kibera Primary School.