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Kenya Program

2007-2008 Program: Wednesday, July 23 - Tuesday, August 5

Meet the Kenya Team Leader: Rebecca Burton

Alum Trip to Kenya: Thursday, March 20 - Tuesday, April 1

Meru, Kenya- 2007 Report

Audiology

The audiology and speech rehabilitation team worked for 6 ½ days at Kaaga School for the Deaf in Meru readjusting the 27 solar powered hearing aids in use by students from last year's YouthLINC visit, and fit 57 more solar powered hearing aids. The students who can benefit from the hearing aids have them now, and know how to use them. The team also worked with the teachers at Kaaga to train them in hearing assessment, leaving with them a donated device for this purpose. We trained and left with the teachers a computer program that will assist them in developing sound awareness and speech in the students who now have hearing aids. The YouthLINC team also installed four classroom amplification systems, which will allow those students who have hearing aids to even more clearly hear their teachers.

Next year, the audiology and speech rehab team will reinforce the lessons learned this year for both Kaaga students and teachers, and continue to refine a sustainable hearing aid and language acquisition plan.

Computer Labs

Three laptops joined those donated last year at Kaaga's computer lab, and the children and teachers received instruction on their use. Five laptops were installed in the brand new YouthLINC provided Vocational Center at Huruma Center for Destitute Children in Nkubu. YouthLINC participants taught computer skills to the older orphans and former street children who now live at Huruma. Hopefully, the Center will also be able to develop an "Internet Café" for the community, a way for the Center to earn extra income.

Construction

YouthLINC participants worked to complete an additional boys' dorm at Huruma, mixing and laying concrete for the floor. There is a lot more work to be done before the stone structure is complete. The walls of the new computer lab are plastered at the Vocational Center at Huruma , but the sewing room, carpentry room still need plaster and paint. Hopefully our team will be able to do some of this work next summer. At Kaaga School for the Deaf, our team painted three more classrooms, and a really colorful mural - a rainbow of handprints.

"The most striking realization I had was that all people the world over are, for the most part, the same. I was amazed to find that after flying 9,000 miles, I could find similarities with and personally relate to the people I encountered. I also will never forget the feeling of being the EXTREME racial minority."
--Nick Andersen, 2001 Kenya participant.

Microenterprise

Our microenterprise team taught business and personal finance lessons to a group of women in Nkubu, so that they will be better prepared to start small businesses and raise the quality of life for their families in this farming community. The Rotary Clubs of Holladay, American Fork, Ogden, Utah as well as Middleton, England and Meru, Kenya are putting forth a Grant application that will provide fruit drying and flour milling equipment to Kaguru Food Processors, a start-up women's coop whose mission is to raise the standards of living for many of the women and their families in this community.

Medical

Team members rounded and observed in clinics at both Consolata Hospital in Nkubu, and Meru District Hospital where an electrocautery generator was donated for surgeries. The team donated over $5000 in medical supplies, as well as baby blankets and hats for newborn wards. At the community clinic in Nkubu, team members taught lessons on nutrition and water purification, dental and general hygiene, first aid, malaria prevention, and infant CPR.

Instruction and Physical Education

As usual our participants taught a lot of fun lessons, and with a generous contribution from REAL soccer, students at Kaaga and Huruma received soccer balls and jerseys. These donations constitute their only playthings.

Next Year

Our team will visit Kiamuri, a remote town in the district of Meru. During our visit, we will work with the community to finish an irrigation project which will bring water to individual houses. This will save the residents several hours per week used to transport water. Two classrooms will be built at a primary school with a generous donation by the Michel Family Foundation. These classrooms will allow the school to serve older children who currently must travel long distances to school. We will also teach lessons and recreational activities to children already attending the school. Those with a medical background will lead a community health fair and work at St. Luke's Cottage Hospital.

"I believe my experience in Kenya will prove to be one of the defining experiences in my development as an aware citizen of this planet. The image of the unimaginable poverty that I have witnessed will be a constant motivation for working towards social justice and other humanitarian projects.
--Benjamin Rackham Kenya 2005