Little Robert Sees Kespa!

Thank you so much for your generous donations to the salary for Kespa, our clinical officer in Rota, Kenya.

Here you can see her posing with one of her patients, Robert.  Robert is 4 years old and was brought in for cold symptoms. He had a runny nose, cough, and fever.  Kespa took one look at him and saw how malnourished he was.  In the US, this would have been thought to be neglect on the part of the parents, but in the developing world, it is mostly due to poverty and “just getting by”.   Robert’s father is a fisherman in Rota; however, Lake Victoria is very over fished at present and the yield is not what it used to be.  A fisherman checking 100m of nets daily might find 5-10 small fish in them.   After selling them for 1-2 dollars he then needs to buy food for his children.  Robert has 4 siblings, so the 6 of them live on these meager wages made from fishing.  His mother also works at the school, but this tends to be mostly volunteer.

When a child like Robert comes into the clinic, every effort is made to help the family find resources to better care for their children.  Robert is lucky in that his malnutrition can be treated with increased protein and carbohydrates in the form of ground nuts (peanuts) and corn meal – both very prevalent and cheap in the area.  They are often provided by the clinic or by others in the community. Kespa then asks the community health workers to make visits to the family on a regular basis to make sure that Robert is getting his increased calories and thrives.

If it wasn’t for your generous donation, children like Robert would still be dreaming of a good meal.  Thank you so much to Sarah (2 days!), Craig, George, Richard, Dennis, Rick and Beth, Dwayne and Terese, Cherry Crest Elementary (2 days!), Peter, Robin and Ninette, Seetha, Cole, Lesley, Marie, Dejan (2 days!), Gillian, William (2 days!), and Arlene–your donations made Kespa’s work possible!