News & Events
Milton and Fred Ochieng’ to make Nashville appearance
Monday, February 20 2012Drs. Milton and Fred Ochieng’ will be featured as the keynote speakers at the TN Global Health Forum in Nashville on Thursday, Feb 23.
Milton and Fred Ochieng’ will be giving a multi-media presentation on building
holistic wellness in Lwala. Through story, statistics, and video, they will bring to life 3 direct challenges to wellness in Lwala, 3 interventions of the Lwala Community Alliance, and important lessons learned.
DATE: Thursday, February 23, 2012
TIME: 1:45pm – 2:45pm
LOCATION: Vanderbilt University Student Life Center
310 25th Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37240 (map)
Also that afternoon…
“Building Multidimensional Partnerships: A Local Perspective on Global Collaboration,” a panel discussion led by Lwala Community Alliance Executive Director James Nardella. Come learn how the Lwala Community Alliance has worked collaboratively with other mid-south organizations to support its various programs in Kenya and hear these partners discuss the benefits of working together.
Time: 3:00pm-4:30pm.
Panelists:
Barak Bruerd – Director of Africa Programs, Blood:Water Mission
Dean Bonnie Miller – Senior Associate Dean for Health Sciences Education, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Noah Derman- Deputy Director, Development in Gardening
Holli Anglin- Managing Director, Thistle Farms
Will Hill – Executive Director, Got Your Back Movement
To register for the event, please click HERE.
We hope to see you there!
Agricultural Project Implemented in Lwala
Friday, January 06 2012Through a partnership with Development in Gardening (DIG), a US-based NGO that works to improve nutrition and heath through sustainable agriculture, the Lwala Community Alliance has implemented a program to bring improved farming knowledge and practice to the people of North Kamagambo. This project includes the development of a vegetable garden on the hospital property to act as a demonstration plot for the community and to supply vegetables to the hospital and community.
DIG focuses on providing the types of vegetables needed for people living with HIV because the current treatments for the disease are most effective when taken with a highly nutritious diet. This means in the inclusions of vegetables such as amaranthas, black nightshed, beet root and fruits like passion fruits that people in the area did not know could assist those living with HIV in their journey to remain healthy.
In addition, the garden has three areas for community groups to have hands on training in organic agriculture techniques that ensure that water sources, soils, and produce stay free of chemicals and are often cheaper for farmers as they use locally available materials. The three groups currently training are the Umama Salama group, which work as community health workers to encourage safe motherhood and birthing practices; the HIV support group; and a youth group made up of young men and women, many of whom do have enough money to stay in school but can use the skills gained through this program to earn their way back to school.
While some of the produce is consumed by the hospital patients and community members, much is sold for the sustainability of the project and for income generation for the individual groups. By ensuring that members are provided information on the nutritional value of different produce and how to prepare them in the most nutritious manner, we can be certain that community members are gaining skills that will help them to stay healthy, earn more money for their families, and protect the earth in order to provide long into the future.
Community members work in the demonstration garden
World AIDS Day Events – Boston and Nashville
Wednesday, November 23 2011In the Lwala area, approximately 1 in 4 people is infected with HIV. Whereas just 5 years ago, people in Lwala had limited access to health care, now nearly 1000 people are currently enrolled in HIV care through the Lwala Community Hospital.
World AIDS Day is held on December 1 each year and is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate people who have died. World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day, and was inaugurated in 1988.
The Lwala Community Alliance is helping to host World AIDS Day events in Boston and Nashville to raise awareness and show support for people living with HIV. Please join us in recognizing that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done.
BOSTON WORLD AIDS DAY EVENT
Join us for a dinner and presentation by Dr. Milton Ochieng’, co-founder of the Lwala Community Alliance. Milton will share his own experience of taking his parents’ death to AIDS as a call to provide care and treatment to thousands in his home community.
Date: Thursday, December 1
Time: Reception at 6:30pm, dinner at 7:00pm for pre-registered guests only
Presentation at 7:45pm, open to the general public
Location: Boston University, George Sherman Union, Faculty Dining Room, 5th Floor, 775 Commonwealth Avenue
Cost: Non-students – $39; Students – $15
Click here to register!
NASHVILLE WORLD AIDS DAY EVENT
The Lwala Community Alliance is one of 12 community partners organizing Nashville’s 2011 World AIDS Day event. World AIDS Day Nashville is a locally-produced multimedia presentation including live theater, music, dance, and film representing the personal experiences of people impacted by HIV and AIDS in Middle Tennessee and around the world. The program also features important information on HIV prevention, testing, treatment, and research, as well as the local resources available to people living with HIV and AIDS.
This event is free and open to the public. There will also be free on-site, confidential HIV testing, HIV prevention materials, and door prizes. Thirty years of HIV…we ALL are affected. Please come out and show your support!
Date: Thursday, December 1, 2011
Time: Doors open at 6pm; show begins at 7:00pm
Location: Ingram Hall, Blair School of Music, 2400 Blakemore Avenue
Free parking is available in South Garage on the corner of 24th Avenue and Children’s Way, across from Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital
For more information, click here.
Evening Survival Kit Launch Party in Nashville on November 17
Thursday, November 10 2011“UNITED WE LOVE”: FOUR WOMEN’S ENTERPRISES PARTNER TO HELP WOMEN SURVIVE WORLDWIDE
November 10, 2011 – Nashville, TN –– With the theme of United We Love, Thistle Farms announces a new product collaboration by four organizations worldwide. The Evening Survival Kit features four women’s accessories for an evening out and supports the survival of women domestically and in three African countries.
Released in time for the gift-giving season, the kit includes a print clutch made by the Lwala women’s sewing cooperative featuring local Kenyan fabric; two handcrafted, beaded bracelets from ABAN, an enterprise for young women coming off of the streets in Ghana; and Thistle Farms Geranium Fields Scented Oil and Lip Smoothie, handmade by survivors of prostitution and addiction in Tennessee. The Scented Oil utilizes organic geranium oil from Ikirezi, a Rwandan farming cooperative supporting genocide widows and orphans.
Said Thistle Farms founder Becca Stevens, “All four organizations are united in our belief that we love the whole world one person at a time and that we are stronger when we work together. The Evening Survival Kit is giving Thistle Farms the opportunity to utilize our relationships to help other women’s social enterprises grow. I have visited each organization, and they are all doing noble work.”
Lwala and Thistle Farms have had a successful partnership for two years. Women tailors in Lwala have hand-sewn bags for Thistle Farms’ various Survival Kits. According to Grace Ochieng’, founder of the Lwala sewing cooperative, “The women of Lwala are proud to work hand in hand, united in sisterhood, with the women of Thistle Farms.”
The launch of the newest Survival Kit will be at a special event hosted by the law firm of Bass, Berry & Sims (150 3rd Ave. S, Nashville, TN 37201) on Thursday, November 17, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. Entry fee is the purchase of the Evening Survival Kit for $25. The evening will feature hors d’oeuvres and beverages from area restaurants and caterers. Reservations must be made with beth@thistlefarms.org.
Becca Stevens, Callie Brauel, co-founder of ABAN, and James Nardella, Executive Director of the Lwala Community Alliance, will all speak at the event. Says Brauel, “We are excited to participate in the launch party as well as have our bracelets in the Evening Survival Kit. This project is uniting courageous women across the Atlantic with the common threads of love and perseverance.”
If you cannot attend the launch party and would like to purchase an Evening Survival Kit or other Thistle Farms products made in collaboration with the Lwala sewing cooperative, please email Katherine Falk at katherine@LwalaCommunityAlliance.org.
Lwala Highlighted at Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting
Thursday, September 15 2011
Due to the successful expansion of maternal and child health care in Lwala, Dr. Milton Ochieng’ was invited to report on the progress of the Lwala Community Alliance on stage with President Clinton during the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting in New York City. CGI is an exclusive invitation-only summit that brings together a diverse group of global leaders including current and former heads of state, Fortune 500 CEOs, national and local government officials, and leaders from the nonprofit sector. The goal of the annual meeting is to devise and implement workable solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. In 2009, the Lwala Community Alliance first attended CGI and was highlighted for our Commitment to Action in the area of maternal and child health. Due to the significant progress made in our 2009 commitment, the Lwala Community Alliance has been granted another complimentary membership to attend the 2011 CGI annual meeting held in New York City from September 20-22. Co-founder Milton Ochieng’ spoke in the opening plenary about the successful growth of the Lwala Clinic, which is now a sub-district level hospital with a dedicated maternity wing. Because delivery numbers in Lwala have surged by 300%, Milton also spoke on a panel in a session entitled “Reproducing Success: Game-changing Interventions in Women’s Health” on the final day of the conference. Due to the success of our sewing cooperative in Lwala, Grace Ochieng’, the cooperative’s founder, also received in invitation to CGI. It was a great event for Lwala.
Some of this year’s notable participants included President Barack Obama; Secretary of State Hilary Clinton; former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair; Muhammed Yunus, Founder of Grameen Bank and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize; Trudie Styler and Sting; Robert Diamond, Chief Executive of Barclays; Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda; Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Company; Nicholas Kristof, Columnist for The New York Times; and Jeff Raikes, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Former President Bill Clinton recently stated, “Since we began in 2005, CGI members have made great progress in addressing critical global issues by making more than 2,000 commitments through CGI that have and will improve the lives of more than 300 million people in more than 180 countries. As many of these commitments come to fruition, I am proud that we will be showcasing the tangible impact they have made.” The Lwala Community Alliance is honored to be counted among CGI’s network of influential global leaders and have its work spotlighted in this year’s annual meeting.
Lwala Community Alliance Responds to Recent Typhoid Outbreak
Monday, August 01 2011
This June, a local secondary school near the Lwala Community Hospital saw a typhoid outbreak sweep through its dormitories and mess hall. Over a period of about two weeks, a number of students from Kameji Secondary School came to the Lwala Community Hospital and tested positive for typhoid. Clinicians and staff responded swiftly to these infections by going to the school to intervene directly.
Since the disease is transmitted via a fecal-oral route, water and food represented the prime suspects for transmission. Clinicians tested the seven food handlers who worked at the school; all seven tested positive and were subsequently treated. Lwala Community Alliance provided water filtration packets and new water tanks as well as funding for repairing the rain catchment systems. After a general education session about typhoid infection and prevention, clinicians carried out mass testing and treatment of the students. In the end, over 180 students registered positive for typhoid. As frightening as this outbreak has been, both the school and the local public health office have expressed deep gratitude to the Lwala Community Alliance for helping curb a potentially tragic situation.
HIV Health Education Program Piloted in Secondary School
Wednesday, July 20 2011
The Lwala Community Alliance determined a need for an effective sex and HIV education outreach program to take to local schools to increase understanding of HIV and ultimately reduce HIV prevalence in the region. As a result, the “Tuko Pamoja” (“We are together” in Kiswahili) curriculum was launched in late May 2011 at Kameji Secondary School. Tuko Pamoja is an HIV, sex, and life skills curriculum designed for youth between ages 10 and 19 years by Kenya’s Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH). All of the Lwala Community Alliance clinical staff were trained by PATH in the curriculum in early May.
Now, Lwala Community Alliance nurses and community health workers are team teaching with instructors at Kameji Secondary School to provide the curriculum to all students in Form 1 and Form 2 (grades 9 and 10). This pilot of the “Tuko Pamoja” program is being analyzed by a Vanderbilt University School of Medicine student spending the summer in Lwala; pre-tests, post-tests, and interviews are being conducted to determine if this program is effective for our community. Hopefully, the results will show positive changes in students’ knowledge and attitudes, and we will then be able to expand this program to take to grades 6-8 in the local primary schools.
Dedication of new maternity wing and recent press in Kenya
Tuesday, April 12 2011
From Clinic to Hospital from Lwala Community Alliance on Vimeo.
On March 21, 2011, the Lwala Community Alliance held a ceremony on site in Lwala to dedicate the new maternity wing. Over 300 people were in attendance, including the Provincial Medical Director, the Minister of Parliament, district education and medical officers, Milton and Fred Ochieng, Executive Director James Nardella and board member Jeff Andrews.
Milton and Fred speak at the dedication ceremony
The Minister of Parliament in attendance at the ceremony
New maternity wing at sunset
In advance of the ceremony, Milton and Fred Ochieng’ made a number of press appearances to discuss the opening of the new maternity wing. Click here to read an article that was published in The Star, a national Kenyan newspaper.
AMBULANCE EMERGENCY
Friday, March 04 2011
One of Lwala’s immediate challenges is the rapid deterioration of the clinic’s ambulance due to wear and tear. The used ambulance was a wonderful gift 3 years ago, but after driving daily on the harsh roads, the 18-year-old vehicle is now experiencing unsustainable maintenance needs. Due to this, our insurance company has recently refused to fully insure it. Even worse, the ambulance has a dangerous new malfunction – its wheels periodically fall off during transport!
Will you join us in raising $45,000 to buy a new ambulance today? This will allow us to acquire one with fewer long-term maintenance needs. Click here to donate funds for a new ambulance!
damaged wheel well on current ambulance
Maternity Ward to Open March 21!
Thursday, March 03 2011
Tour the new building with Executive Director James Nardella
The new maternity and clinical care wing will open on March 21, 2011. The expansion triples the size of the facility in Lwala. The clinical care side of the building contains a triage bay, 4 private consulation rooms, a procedures room, a small ward, and a health education room. The maternity side has space for labor, delivery, and recovery. Two-dozen local laborers are working 6 days a week to complete construction. The new wing will transform health care in Lwala by lifting the quality and variety of services our patients receive.
