Whatever it Takes

The Rural Community Health Clinic, based at the Rift Valley Children’s Village, serves our surrounding community of 10,000. Our Registered Nurse, Katie Anderson, provides free medical care to an average of 12 patients a day and is able to treat most medical issues ranging from the common cough to malnutrition. However, some of the cases that come through the clinic go well beyond our scope of work. Dedicated to ensuring that every member of our community gets the care that they need, in such cases we assume the roles of medical case manager, supporter and advocate.    

Nawe Bombo, a 14-year-old child from a village outside of Karatu, arrived at RVCV with a severe head infection that had started to spread. When we come across severe situations like Nawe’s, our team not only identifies where the patient needs to go to get proper care, but also examines all of the logistics required to make that care possible. We coordinate transport to various facilities, identify courses of treatment and fund any additional care that will take place. We ensure that treatment plans, recovery and rehab programs are established and followed.

For Nawe, we arranged for him to be seen at the Foundation for African Medicine and Education (FAME), our health partner in Karatu. At FAME, Nawe was diagnosed with ringworm on the head and a secondary infection. Over the next few months, we stayed in close contact with Nawe’s doctors, coordinated transportation for his dressing changes that took place every three days, and ensured that the treatment plan was improving his condition. After two months of Nawe still struggling to get healthy, we were able to have him transferred to a hospital that offered more extensive inpatient care in Moshi.  After four months of fully funded care, he was finally discharged and has fully recovered! We continue to support Nawe and remain active in his recovery, coordinating follow-up appointments and enforcing diligence in his continued treatment plan. 

Nawe Bombo is just one of many patients who come through our clinic whose needs exceed our immediate capabilities. But we don’t stop just because the resources are limited. No matter what we are presented with, we halt at nothing to ensure healthful recoveries for every member of our community.