Trustee Noreen Collins is making final preparations for her visit to the Buburi clinic and as always is anticipating an action-packed couple of weeks. She tells us what is in store:
‘Following a very successful few weeks of fundraising we now have enough funds to increase clinic services on this trip. I will be supporting our clinic midwife Joyce to initiate midwifery services which will include antenatal care as well as a delivery service for local women who are currently not able to access hospital care, usually because they cannot afford it or it is too far away.
‘We have an excellent working relationship with the senior nurses at Sioport Hospital and Public Health and they will be assisting us with this. If time permits, I’d like to identify local traditional birth attendants to find out how they work and offer some support and training; it’s so important that we understand what is already in place.
‘I also aim to get electricity installed at the clinic, which is an exciting development for us. It means the clinic will be able to have a drug fridge so we can support the existing Kenyan immunisation programme. It also means we’ll be able to provide laboratory services too in the future.
‘So that our team of Community Health Workers can reach communities that are further away I will be purchasing three more bikes for them to use.
‘I am excited and a little apprehensive, as always before a trip. I am really looking forward to seeing our lovely friends in Buburi and catching up with all of their news. I am also anxious that we can achieve all we set out to do, there are always unforeseen challenges along the way’.
Noreen will be accompanied by friend, colleague and senior midwife Gwenllian Riall: ‘This is her [Gwenllian’s] first trip to Kenya. She is really looking forward to meeting the nursing team and getting involved with our work in the clinic’.