My name is Jillian Grady. I am a 3rd year nursing student from the University of Prince Edward Island. Along with three of my classmates, Allison MacDonald, Stephanie Barlow, and Amy Somers, I am spending the summer in Kenya. We have partnered with Farmers Helping Farmers, a PEI organization that has been established in Kenya for about 30 years. We are the third group of nursing students from UPEI to work in this area, and we are so thankful for the experience. We have been here for a month and have another two to go. It is really difficult to put into words everything I have experienced and all of the emotions that I have felt. Every day is really an adventure.

We are located in Kiirua in Meru District, close to Mount Kenya. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and most Wednesdays, we are working at St. Theresa’s Mission Hospital. It is an 80-some-bed hospital with an outpatient department, medical, surgical and maternity units, and a sort of public health center. We are experiencing things here that we would never experience in Canada, as students, anyway. We have seen the births of so many babies and will hopefully be able to conduct some births within the next few days. We have attended surgeries, and are now being encouraged to scrub in and assist. Amazing. We have seen some devastating health conditions. Burns, pressure ulcers, respiratory depression in newborns, congestive heart failure in 30-year-olds. We assessed a new mother and found that she was bleeding heavily several hours after giving birth to her baby. She had lost a lot of blood so was very tired and weak, and had not breast fed her baby. The mother was going into shock and the baby was severely dehydrated. Both of them were in critical states, and we were able to care for them and bring them back to health. It was an amazing feeling. We are learning so much, but are also able to contribute the knowledge and techniques that we use in Canada that nurses do not use here.

The Wednesdays that we are not in the hospital, we are working with four public schools to promote hygiene. Farmers Helping Farmers has generously supplied each adolescent girl at all four schools with reusable menstrual pads. Disposable sanitary napkins are available but are very expensive. When girls are on their periods, they may use rags or pieces of mattress as a pad. Many girls stay home from school when they are menstruating because they do not have sanitary napkins available. The reusable pads are pieces of cotton sewn together. They can be washed, dried, and reused. If cared for properly, they can last for over a year. We have visited two schools so far. Stephanie and Amy demonstrated how to use and clean the pads and presented each girl with a package containing 8 pads. The girls are very appreciative because this product allows them attend school continuously and be more active. The girls have many questions that Steph and Amy are able to answer for them. Information about menstruation, hygiene during menstruation, and HIV is also discussed. The girls are very interactive and happy to have this information presented to them. There were many giggles when Steph and Amy demonstrated how to apply the pads to the underwear! One of the teachers said that the pads would make a very big difference in the girls’ lives. While Stephanie and Amy meet with the girls, Jillian and Allison present the hand washing demonstrations. Farmers Helping Farmers also generously donated a huge box of soap to each school. The students come to the hand washing station and Allison and Jillian explain why frequent and thorough hand washing is important. The kids know to wash their hands before they eat, after they visit the washroom, and after they cough or sneeze. The proper hand washing technique is demonstrated and the kids follow along. Then they get a turn to wash with the soap that is provided. The staff at the schools are very accommodating and help to translate our presentation to the younger children that have not yet learned much English.

On Thursdays (and some Fridays), we join our friends Josephine (a nurse at the hospital) and Dennis (a lab tech at the Machaka Dispensary), and walk for hours around slum areas around Kiirua, giving out de-worming medicine to the people we meet and testing people for HIV. We usually walk around Machaka or Ntemburi. The outreach program has been going on for some time, but has just recently received approval to do HIV testing. If people test positive, they receive free treatment at the hospital. Before, Josephine and Dennis would walk around and inform people of a free testing service that is available at St. Theresa’s Mission Hospital. Hardly anyone would go, because people generally do not have money for transportation to the hospital. So this change in the outreach program is wonderful. We have accompanied Josephine and Dennis 6 times and have tested about 30 people. Amazingly, everyone that we have tested has been negative. This is one of my favorite experiences, because we interact with people in the communities, learn their language, and really see how they live. We have been invited into some homes, and coming from where we come from, it is incredible to see how people survive. The people here are incredibly strong and resilient.

On Fridays, we spend the day at the Machaka Children’s Home, which is run by the sisters who also run the hospital. There are 13 children that live at the home permanently. Each child has a heart wrenching story. There is a set of twins, a boy and a girl, who have been there for a few months. They are about 7 or 8 months old (no one knows for sure). The parents only wanted the boy, so they neglected the girl. The boy is much bigger than the girl, and much more developmentally mature. The girl spends a lot of time sucking on her fingers or crying, and cannot sit up on her own, while her brother is almost walking. There is another boy who was found in a ditch, and another who was found in a latrine. The sisters and staff of the Children’s Home are really doing a wonderful thing. They also run a feeding program for about 60 children in the community. The kids, all under the age of 5, arrive at the center in the morning, all dressed in their adorable blue outfits, and play in a really nice play ground. They have a kind of pre-school program where the kids are learning the alphabet, numbers, songs, etc. They are fed food that is mostly all grown on the farm that is run by the staff at the children’s home. It is really an amazing project. Last week, we baked the kids chocolate chip cookies and handed out Canadian flags. At about 12:30, after they have all eaten, the kids walk back home- sometimes upwards of 2 or 3 kilometers. They often walk home alone. Watching them run home, all waving their little flags, was one of the most amazing sights that I have ever seen.

This is most definitely the most rewarding, exciting, and memorable thing that I have ever done. We are all so thankful to have this opportunity.

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