World Water Day and Concert in Nakuru!

sh. To celebrate today's "World Water Day 2008" we had a very active program. The Swiss TV crew was filming the whole day, dulcimer player Nicolas gave a concert for thousands of Kenyans and we gave out the twice weekly food portions to the refugees. Nicolas also helped for 7 hours with the food program! Also present were school classes from Thugunui where we have another water project together with the Austrian organization "Schilling für Schilling" with Eddie Kroll. Our own water station at the Rhein-Valley Hospital was also very active until the evening and it was a real joy to see the manifestation of the "World Water Day" in reality! By the way our hospital is fully occupied at the moment. Unfortunately we have to place newcomers in the Nakuru camp. Although it was cloudy today the temperature here in Kasambara still was very high: around 35° C in the shadow and this on an altitude of 2000 m!

Making the children happy

Yesterday we met quite a lot of children collecting wood for their cooking fires back home at the camps. To some of them we offered T-Shirts and caps and also a Frutapura package. With little things you can make them happy! We also went to Nairobi to welcome Gaby Schädler from the Swiss TV (Rundschau) and Swiss dulcimer musician Nicolas Senn together with his mother. Today we have a full program - more news tonight.

Story on girl who escaped the flames

In today's edition of the Kenyan Newspaper "The People Daily", a story of a girl was published that escaped from a burning church. As the paper mentions, "young Wanjiru persevered with serious burns on the left side of her body for four days at the Catholic Church grounds before a Good Samaritan took her to Moi Referral Hospital for treatment. She is now camping at an non-governmental organisation-sponsored facility, Rhein-Valley Hospital, at Kasambara in Mbaruku area of Nakuru District. Wanjiru is grateful to the hospital's directors Ruth and Stephan who footed her hospital bill. Stephan says the girl was initially deeply traumatised that she could not allow anybody to touch her. But she responded well to treatment and has now recovered. The hospital is hosting over 2,000 internally displaced persons from Eldoret, Burnt Forest, Likia, Londiani and Naivasha. Some from Nakuru showground had also moved to the hospital. Wanjiru intends to get back to school at the nearby Kasambara Primary School. She has however forgiven those who killed her father and grandmother, but would like the Government to pursue and arrest them." Click on the article to enlarge it.

Street life in Nakuru

sh. Today we were in Nakuru to buy the food for the 3,500 refugees that are expected to come to the Rhein-Valley Hospital on Saturday. This will be an important day. Swiss musician Nicolas Senn and a Swiss TV crew will be here. Many school children will came from Thugunui and Kasambara and there will be a big concert for them. While staying in Nakuru we could visit a sewing factory and were quite shocked about the working conditions there. On the streets we were protected by our boy body guards who also look after our car. Life in the streets is also not easy to digest for us Europeans. It is impossible to mention all details here. The street boys are always on good terms with Mama Matata and it is amazing how she can accept the situation. For me (Stephan) it is a bit more difficult because of my week immune system. I have to keep some distance.

Bicycle reparations at the street corner - but still with joy!

Original Kenyan artworks to thank the donors!

km. The staff of the Rhein-Valley Hospital recently sent out mailings to some recent donors in Europe. The letters were not only all hand-written, they contained an original Kenyan artwork! Watch this sample. Click on the picture to get a larger view.

Tent camp for the refugees nearly finished

sh. A day full of activities and suprises here in Kasambara (Nakuru). We managed to install 35 tents for our refugee camp at the Rhein-Valley Hospital and hope to finish the remaining 15 on Thursday. A couple of volunteers helped us preparing the ground so that the tents could be put in place and properly fixed. The sun was burning our faces and the sweat flew down the chins. Then we had to think of the next steps: ordering mattresses and getting blankets. I quickly called Heinz Heer from "kidstokids" in Switzerland and asked him to check with Erich Kühnis, President of the Rhein-Valley Hospital Association, how we could get some in the next couple of days. Heinz had the idea of contacting again Thomas Kumpera from the catastrophy services at the Swiss Red Cross and he promptly agreed to donate 300 blankets. Soyana promised to bring them from the capital Berne to the Airport in Zurich and SWISS Airlines agreed to transport them by Air this Friday free of charge to Nairobi. It is a 500 kg delivery. Our refugees will be more than grateful! Today we had our first big downpour so the urgency of having a tent camp is obvious. Hope the sunny days will still prevail in the near future.

Growing support for Mama Matata

sh. Today we not only served 3,500 refugees at remaining hot temperatures but we could do it in the presence of many journalists from Nairobi as well as a TV crew from Switzerland (TV TSR). A big help to bring together so many press people was Josef Muyu, Director of the Lake Nakuru Lodge. Mr. Muya (see right picture) also brought a present for the refugees: 4 bags of milk powder, answered questions from the journalists and praised the activities of the Rhein - Valley Hospital. Today we gave out food for the next 3 days: corn, rice, sugar, white and brown porridge, Frutapura baby food, beans, milk powder and not to forget: fresh drinking water. Some hope is dawning: the press is acknowledging our work and we have to forget the past. Let's build together a new future for the Kenyan people!

Swiss donate 150,000 CHF for Kenya

km. The popular Swiss weekly "Migros-Magazin" (circulation of 3 million) again presents the issues of the Rhein-Valley Hospital in today's edition on 4 pages. After a first report of the magazine there was a huge reader response and a total of nearly 150'000 Swiss Francs were donated. Dispite all problems Ruth Schäfer (Mama Matata) speaks about first signs of hope! Here is the link to the article in the online-edition:

Italians bring pharmaceuticals and more...

shh. We had a hard working day. Mama Matata and our book- keeper Niaga got a visit from a Government agent because of the papers for our container. In Kenya you learn to be patient. Today we also got a visit from three Italian friends: Enio, Gabriella and Gianni. They brought several pharmaceuticals as well as food and clothes for the refugees. Our Italian friends were enthusiastic about our work at the hospital. Last October they organized an exhibition with drawings from Italian children for their Kenyan brothers and sisters and are helping the "kidstokids" organization in Italy. The drawings should be in the big "kidstokids" container that is planned to finally arrive next week. We also installed the first 10 tents; we hope to finish the camp by the end of the week.

Press and TV will visit the hospital on Tuesday

sh. Today we had a meeting with Josef Muya, Director of the Lake Nakuru Lodge in Nakuru Town. He helps us with the food distribution for the Kikuju refugees and plans to come to the hospital this Tuesday together with journalists from the Press and TV to explain the current situation. He hopes that the tourists soon will come back to Kenya, because without them the country cannot survive. We also have strong hopes that finally the Press and the Government realize the facts and start supporting our efforts.

Peace match by local football team

sh. Mama Matata sponsored a dress for the football team of Molo that had a match for peace outside the official stadium, because this is currently occupied by 6000 refugees. Only through sports a new friendship can be built, if only for a limited time. The Coach and the team members were very enthusiastic about the initiative of Mama Matata.

New Blog with Photos from Kenya!

Stephan from the Rhein-Valley Hospital regularly takes photos for this News Blog from Nakuru. Unfortunately not all can be used and they are only seen in reduced format. Perhaps you are inspired to visit our new photo blog that will bring you one new picture every day in large size. And there will be a variety of subjects, also outside the duties of the hospital... here is the link:

http://kenyaphotos.wordpress.com/

Enough drinking water thanks to our fountains

sh. With the current high temperatures water is the gold for Kenya's population. Thanks to our two fountains that we built in and above the Rhein-Valley Hospital thousands of people luckily still have enough fresh drinking water. Today we were in the town (Nakuru) and saw some used shoes on the street. We just wondered if these were the clothing collections from the help organizations that are being sold instead of being given to the poor...? On the market there are enough fresh fruits (see picture) but the people don't have the money to buy them.

Mama Matata did the planning for the coming week, so that the food distributions on Tuesday and Saturday can be done without problems. And on Monday we will start installing the tents. There will be a whole tent camp and all the sanitary facilities have to be organized. So a busy week is in sight.

Vaccination day

sh. Around 350 mothers with their children came today for vaccinations. We accept them batch by batch, otherways 1000 people would come at once. Our medical staff had a hard day: treatments in the hospital, taking care of the accouche- ments and the vaccinations. Before return- ing home we quickly had a look at the refugee camp (see picture below).

Austrian Food Container arrived in Nakuru

sh. This morning we had to get up early to greet the two representatives of the Austrian "Schilling für Schilling" organization at the Airstrip in Nakuru. They sponsored a food container that arrived today at the hospital. Oliver, Michaela and the Manager of the African Safari Club hotel in Mombasa came for the arrival but could only stay for two hours, before they had to continue their journey.

Today we gave out food for 3500 refugees at the Rhein-Valley Hospital and there was a vaccination day for the mothers. We also had an important visit: Mr. Meina (left in above picture together with Stephan Holderegger in the middle) from the UN World Food Program was here and appreciated our work. He plans to hold a press conference tomorrow where he will inform about our activities at the hospital. While here he also called up the secretary of the Swiss Ambassador in Nairobi and told him about our constructive work for the poor. Mr. Meina said that he hasn't seen so much inspiring activities for a long time and that he tries to get foods from his organization.

We just heard that the National Swiss TV SF DRS1 with Gaby Schädler from the "Rundschau" program will visit us from March 21-27 to produce a film in Nakuru together with Swiss dulcimer player Nicolas Senn.

50 tents from the Swiss Red Cross arrived

sh. This morning we prepared everything for the arrival of the 50 tents that the Swiss Red Cross donated for the refugees of Nakuru. Each tent has a weight of nearly 60 kg. Immediately after receiving the tents we started to assemble the first one. The family tents will carry 6-8 people and all tents have a special waterproof roof. After 3 hours the first tent was ready! Now we can prepare all tents so that the refugees get some shelter which is especially important in regard to the rain period that is starting soon. We also got a call that the expected food container is only 25 k away from the hospital.

Vistiting 10,000 refugees in Nakuru

sh. Today we visited the refugee camp in Nakuru, where 8,000 to 13,000 people are stationed. We learned about their sorrows and their lack of perspectives for the future. They have always the same question in their minds: where should they go, because there seem to be no possibilities of returning home. At the same time they are happy that some white people take care of them. Some refugees not only let us watch the situation but also had a long conversation with us, in which they explained their situation. We promised them to come back and we definitely learned that things are not going well but we do not know who is responsable.

Hand-made postcards for the donors

sh. Today we went to town to get a set of special hand-made postcards that we will use to thank our donors. Then we visited the street boys and checked their medical condition. Two of them we have to bring to our hospital. Another job was the preparation of a 20 ' Container that is on the way from the Austrian partner organization "Schilling für Schil- ling". It should be here by March 13th. Two representatives of the organization will be also present for the official do- nation of the foods.

Mama Matata's friendship with streeet boys

sh. Tonight Stephan Holdereger arrived in Nakuru as mentioned in yesterday's post. On the way to the hospital we saw 3 large fires, but couldn't find out any deatails. Today we discussed the program of the coming week and the street boys that always helped Mama Matata (Ruth Schäfer) came to see her. They haven't been around for quite some time. The boys were happy and greeted Ruth cordially. They all got 1 Liter of milk, 1 kilo of bread and a portion of French Fries. We also met a boy who has a mutilated leg. He recognized us because we previously checked the possibility of an operation, but it unfortunately was not possible. Mama Matata is the last resort for these boys.

New plaster will help the burn patients

Yesterday a boy with some heavy burn visited again our hospital for checking his condition. Last week we could successfully reduce the infections he had and a new skin is regrowing. We are now waiting for a new plaster that we should soon get from a company in Kerzers, Switzerland. With this plaster we can treat all such burns in the future.

Today we gave out more baby food, corn and cabbage, which had first to be cleaned before we could use it. The temperature again was high with 30° C (see also our regularly updated weather chart in the right column) and there is a strong wind blowing in our region. Asthmatics are suffering from the occuring dust. Tonight my partner Stephan Holderegger again is coming to visit me and the hospital. I will pick him up at the Nairobi Airport and then we have another 3-4 hours until we reach Nakuru.

I would also like to thank all people who kindly donated money for our hospital in the last few days.

Ruth Schäfer