“Women are walking about twenty miles from their homes to our centre” says a Doctor Ladislaus Paul Ritte, Doctor in Charge at Narumu clinic. “Sometime they may die on the way to the dispensary.”
Narumu clinic is a last mile medical facility. It has a single doctor and a handful of other staff. Moreover, the clinic doesn’t have an ultrasound machine or resuscitation equipment, if it did it would be worthless as the hospital doesn’t have electricity. “Using a kerosene lamp is difficult to conduct a delivery,” the doctor says, “but there is no way, we have to do it.”
The two-roomed clinic cannot be considered a safe place for women to give birth, nonetheless it struggles on. It is the only facility for a population of 226,000 people and the 23 babies born in the community every day. As a result, infant mortality and the maternal death rate are extremely high in Narumu. Without equipment, the medical staff cannot identify at-risk women or provide life support services such as ventilators and intravenous feeding. Without the necessary staff they cannot provide prenatal and antenatal services to women and babies. The clinic also suffers a critical lack of space meaning women must often queue up outside.
In addition, because it lacks transportation – Narumu does not have an ambulance – many women come here to die, unable to get to a better equipped general hospital because many of women here live in poverty. The staff and Tujenge Maisha can recount many incidences of women and babies dying or being born on the street or while seeking money for transport.
In 2012, Dorothy Mboya, a nurse currently living in the United States but born and raised in Namuru, decided that she’d seen enough suffering. She put together a non-profit she called Tujenge Maisha and outlined a plan to construct and staff a new modern health centre.
We, Tujenge Maisha, and the people of Narumu would be grateful if you would donate to our cause. We estimate our project will cost $300,000, a sum that is far too large for our community to raise itself. The mothers and babies of Narumu thank you for your generosity.
