Before now, St. John’s Mwongeti Village in Kenya has never had its own medical clinic. With a population of approximately 6,000 residents, people were forced to walk an hour to get to the closest medical facility. All that will change within about a month’s time, as the village welcomes its first Dispensary (the local term for medical clinic). Food For Kidz -Stewart MN is pleased to have had a hand in this life-changing project.
The Excitement is Building!
Teaming up to make this a reality is a group of people in St. John’s Mwongeti Village and friends in the United States who brought together Food For Kidz, the Bergquist Foundation, Hutchinson Rotary, Kino Rotary, and Rotary International. A little over a year ago, a multi-use building called the Village Market was built to house a community library and maze mill. With space remaining in the building, the vision of a medical clinic continued to take shape. Food for Kidz donated $5,500 to purchase instrumentation and supplies for the Dispensary. The Rotary Clubs donated funds and secured a matching grant to purchase medical equipment and furnishings for the Dispensary. With the electrical and water systems complete, an incinerator installed and a latrine built, the Dispensary just erected its signage letting the villagers know it soon would be open.
When the funds arrive in the next few days, the local project manager in St. John’s Mwongeti Village will oversee the completion of the Level 1 clinic, and it should open within a month. An RN will staff the clinic, until growth is established and Level 2 status will allow for their equivalent of a Physicians Assistant to join the staff.
St. John’s Mwongeti Village: Past and Future
The vision for advancing this community continues, as a pharmacy is planned next and hopefully staffed with a Pharmacist. Food For Kidz has a history of helping this village grow through charitable donations dating back to the construction of the Village Market housing the library and maze mill. We donated funds for the mill and shipped 1,800 books to stock the library. Today, people come from neighboring villages to read, research, and use the library space and books.Women are able to mill maze without walking over 2 hours to do so!
