The Rhein - Valley Hospital in Nakuru-Kasambara opened in 2004 and is directed by Ruth Schäfer of Switzerland. The hospital relies solely on donations for buying food and medicine for the poor and suffering locals. Moreover, all funds are used directly for patient care. Every year thousands of people visit the hospital for medical help and nowadays also for food and shelter. Blog Editor: Kedar Misani.

You can send your donations to the Alpha Rheintal Bank, CH - 9442 Berneck, Switzerland; Clearing 6920, BIC RBABCH22926;
IBAN: CH75 06920016 1856 71206, Verein Rhein-Valley Hospital, CH - 9450 Altstätten, Switzerland.


Saturday, December 6, 2008

Larger children take care of the small ones


rs. While the parents are working in the garden the larger children take care of the small ones. Also Jakob, our guard, likes to be with the children.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Drinking water most needed


rs. If you drive around Nakuru, busy traffic marks the image of the region and you can feel Christmas time approaching. If you are on the road you better keep all valuable things at home, otherways you risk them to be stolen. The temperature is still very high, we measured 35 °C today. It's not only the heat that bothers the people but also the dry warm wind. So our water station is used very frequently especially by the children because they have now holidays. I always tell our guards to ask the children only to use clean vessels, but what can you do. Also their outfit is dirtier than dirty. Even at night many Kenyans do not change clothes, so it is also not easy to convince them to change into proper clothes when they are in our hospital.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

An emergency case



rs. Yesterday night we had an emergency case. A young woman was brought to the hospital in strange conditions. It seems that she had been raped. We always tell our people to be cautious when it is dark; best is to go in groups.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Preparing for Christmas and 2009


rs. Christmas time is approaching and we have a lot of work, also in the administrative sector. We have to order the lacking medications until December 15 and the holiday plans for our crew have to be made for the coming year. Everybody speaks of Christmas although we do not know it in Kenya as we do in Europe. Still it is a nice time where people sit together and have a nice meal. As my family is not here, I will be together with my staff members.

Monday, December 1, 2008

More exercises would be of great help


rs. Today we had our weekly children's and babies' day. Our doctor is not only prescribeng medications, but he also informs the patients how they can take care of themselves, especially by doing some physical exercises which are not very common among the average population. It would also help the children in the schools to have some gymnastic lessons.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Tourists are still lacking


rs. Today we had again hot temperatures with 32 °C and I took the chance to visit a sightseeing point, the highest in Nakuru. As I entered the ground, an Askari asked for an entrance fee. Although this is certainly not a good decision to ask for money, I wanted to go in but realized that there were no tourists, not even locals.