Lwala Community Alliance

Lwala Community Hospital Celebrates 5 Years

kfalk — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 03:36:31 +0000

This week marks the 5 year anniversary of the opening of the Lwala Community Hospital!

APRIL 2007

APRIL 2012

Dear Friends,

This week 5 years ago, we opened our doors to seeing patients in the village of Lwala in western Kenya. Fred and I were but medical students. From reading emergency medicine textbooks on the fly, to delivering our first breech delivery with telephone assistance from an OB in Tampa, Florida, to now having nearly 90 Kenyans employed by our nonprofit, the Lwala Community Alliance, we have come a long way. We’ve provided more than 80,000 patient visits! When our parents passed only 6 years ago, there was no local access to HIV care. We now have nearly 1,000 people enrolled in care and treatment! It’s been a team effort. Thank you for your support and thanks to the people on the ground in Lwala for helping us achieve this milestone.

-Dr. Milton Ochieng’

P.S. Want to really see the progress? Click below to watch a recent talk Fred and I gave.

OUR GOALS FOR 2012 INCLUDE…

●4,000 students with access to clean drinking water
●1,500 people on HIV care
●700 girls reached through our Girls’ Education Program
●500 new WASH trainees
●400 participants in our agricultural training
●350 babies safely delivered at the Lwala Community Hospital
●35 new Community Health Workers employed to reach mothers and children
●20 people earning income through our sewing and soap-making cooperatives
●10 new secondary school students receiving sponsorships
●1 new ambulance providing emergency transport to those who need it

Thank you for being part of the journey with us!

DIARRHEAL OUTBREAK TRIGGERS EMERGENCY RESPONSE

kfalk — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:48:10 +0000

Due to the dry season in Lwala, people have turned to unsafe sources of water for drinking. In the first 2 weeks of February, over 40% of the children who came to the Lwala Community Hospital came with diarrhea. Most of these children are between the ages of 6 and 18 months, and one child died at the hospital due to the severity of her dehydration.

We need your help to maintain our emergency response both at the hospital and in the community.

The hospital staff are treating children with oral rehydration therapy (ORT) and teaching mothers an inexpensive way to create ORTs at home using salt, water, and sugar and are distributing free Waterguard and PUR tablets to ensure
families can treat their water.

Lwala Community Alliance also has mobilized a team of 14 community members trained in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) to go door-to-door in the villages surrounding Lwala to educate community members on safe water and sanitation, teach them how make ORTs, and distribute Waterguard and PUR. Simultaneously, staff have been visiting local schools to provide health talks on how to prevent the spread of diarrhea both at home and at school.

To date, the WASH outreach workers have reached 2705 people in the community and an additional 5979 students through school-based visits.
In addition, 300 bottles of Waterguard and 12,000 sachets of PUR tablets (enough to equal 120,000 liters of clean water) have been distributed. Through consultation with the Kenyan government, public health officials, and other NGOs, the Lwala Community Alliance is working to reduce the number of children who must suffer from this preventable condition.

As this current outbreak was unanticipated, we have had to spend outside of our budget to effectively address this dire situation. Your extra support is greatly needed at this time.
To make a gift, click HERE.

Drs. Milton and Fred Ochieng’ deliver keynote speech at 2012 TN Global Health Forum

kfalk — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:08:32 +0000

Click here to read the article.

Milton and Fred Ochieng’ to make Nashville appearance

kfalk — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:31:33 +0000

Drs. 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

kfalk — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:08:26 +0000

Through 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 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

Meet Leah

lwadmin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 22:23:34 +0000

World AIDS Day Events – Boston and Nashville

kfalk — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:42:34 +0000

In 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

kfalk — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:22:32 +0000

“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 Featured at the Clinton Global Initiative 2011 Meeting

kfalk — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:03:57 +0000

Click here to read the article.

The Vanderbilt Reporter highlights Dr. Milton Ochieng’s participation at Clinton Global Initiative

kfalk — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:01:34 +0000

Click here to read the article.