Providing Primary Health Care while Revenge and Violence Continue

Photo: Natalia Cieslik

Medical advisor for the IMC emergency response team, Dr. Jeff Goodman, cares for a displaced mother and child in the mobile clinic near Eldoret. The pair is two of the 104 patients the clinic saw that day, as many seek treatment for upper respiratory infections, malaria, and diarrhea.

Eldoret, Kenya – Since the 3rd of January a stream of people has been arriving at the Miracle Harvest Center, a Pentecostal church in Kapsoya Estate, about 3.5km outside of Eldoret. Pastor Joseph John Dmanyo now looks after more than 300 people, most of them children. He has spent the church funds on food and blankets and asked the congregation to donate more food. “For me it is a blessing,” he says. “We have people from all tribes staying in the church and I counsel them and ask them to live together in peace.”

International Medical Corps brought its mobile medical team to the church to provide primary and antenatal health care to the displaced. Margret Erude is complaining about chest pains and palpitations. At night she has trouble sleeping. After examining her Dr. Jeff Goodman, medical adviser for the IMC emergency response team, believes the stress of displacement is taking its toll on the mother of four. “We see a lot of people with psycho-social problems. People have been through a lot. They have witnessed violence and destruction.”

Erude was told by her landlord that she had to leave because her family belongs to a different tribe. Being associated with the wrong side has become reason enough for people to loose their homes, their belongings, and sometimes their lives. “My landlord used to be a nice man, but I will never be able to go back there,” she says. “After I left, everything was stolen. My parents are dead and there is no place I can go.”

Photo: Natalia Cieslik

Pregnant with her fifth child and severely anemic, 27-year-old Helen Najori worries about how she will care for the baby she is expecting last month. With everything lost in the recent violence, Najori relied on IMC to administer anemia medication and prepare antenatal care.

On this day IMC saw 104 patients at the church, the majority suffering from upper respiratory chest infections, malaria and diarrhea. The displaced do not have enough blankets and mosquito nets and nights are cold in Eldoret.

Helen Najori is 27 and pregnant with her fifth child. She also was chased away by her landlord and is too afraid to leave the church. “I am so worried, I cannot even sleep,” she says. “My child is due next month and the doctor says I need a cesarean section. But I don’t have money for transport.” Najori is severely anemic. IMC staff gave her medication to raise the iron levels in her blood and also organized transport with the help of Pastor Joseph when labor begins. “I am worried for the time after baby is born. I don’t have any clothes for the child. I don’t have food. I have nothing.”

More than 50 patients were still waiting to see the medical team when news arrived that an opposition politician had been shot dead in Eldoret city. “People came running toward the church from all directions,” says Jane Bauni, IMC’s emergency response coordinator. “We had to suspend services immediately for our own safety. But tomorrow morning we will assess the situation and open our mobile clinic as soon as security permits.”