News & Events

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

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.

The Lwala Community Alliance is partnering with Blood:Water Mission to provide community-based trainings in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and to bring clean water and sanitation access to the 13 primary schools in the location over the next 3 years. The aim of WASH training is the prevention of water-borne sicknesses in young children and opportunistic infections for HIV patients. The seminars are a creative mix of lessons based on drama, song, and group work. Each month the 4-day trainings culminate in a public certificate award ceremony for the 20-25 participants (see photos). In the months that follow each training, the Lwala staff follow up with participants to monitor adherence to good WASH practices. In 2010, more than 100 community members participated in WASH training. Recently a group of exceptional WASH participants was selected and trained as trainers (TOT’s).

During 2011, we are also working to provide water access at the clinic and at 4 of the local schools by building rainwater catchments, drilling boreholes, and constructing safer latrines. Thanks again to Blood:Water and Shoeman Ministries for their support of these new programs.

Songs of Lwala CD

Bring the sounds of Lwala into your home this holiday. Our live audio recordings showcase the talent and orginal music of the church and school choirs in Lwala. $15 (including shipping)

Lwala Greeting Cards

Share images of Lwala with friends and family through our custom greeting cards. Each set includes 5 different high quality photos from the village. The cards are blank inside and are packaged in a handmade bag from Lwala. $15 per set of 5 (including shipping)

Sons of Lwala DVD

You can purchase the award-winning documentary that follows the Ochieng’ brothers on their incredible journey from Lwala, Kenya to medical school in the U.S., and back home to build Lwala’s first medical clinic. $20 (including shipping)

Thistle Farms Winter Survival Kit

The women’s sewing co-op in Lwala produces handmade bags in partnership with Thistlefarms, a Nashville based non-profit that produces bath and body products to support women around the world. Visit the Thistle Farms website to purchase (www.thistlefarms.org)

This past spring, the Lwala Community Alliance began a partnership with Thistle Farms, a Nashville-based nonprofit business run by women who have survived lives of violence, prostitution, and abuse. The women at Thistle Farms make, package, and market natural bath and body products that are sold in a number of stores. In partnering with these efforts this past spring, the New Vision Women’s Sewing Group in Lwala made beautiful cloth bags for the Thistle Farms “Summer Survival Kits.” Currently, the sewing group is working on the “Winter Survival Kits” to be sold over the next few months. Proceeds from the sales of the kits benefit Thistle Farms and the sewing group in Lwala, thereby supporting microenterprise efforts for both groups of women.

In addition, the Lwala Community Alliance is teaming up with another Nashville-based nonprofit called Got Your Back to provide 400 girls in grades 6-8 in Lwala with a school uniform and a pack of 5 reusuable menstrual pads. These efforts are aimed at providing incentives to girls to attend school at a time when many of them drop out. The uniforms and menstrual pads will be sewn by the women in the New Vision Women’s Sewing Group as well as by women tailors in the participating school communities.

Read more about our Economic Development initiatives »

Brothers Milton and Fred Ochieng’ were featured in a January 2010 article in Black Enterprise.

Read the article: A Healing Touch »