CURRENT PROJECTS

The Clinic Project

 

Welcome to the Kolunga Village Community Clinic. The new clinic was built in 2010 with funds from many generous donors, a lot of hard work from community residents, and KVF Board members as well. It is our crowning glory and we are always striving to make it better for the community and all involved.

 

When we constructed the clinic building, we partnered with another NGO (non-government organization) which was paying the staff salaries of the medical personnel. The agreement was that we would build the building, and they would run the day-to-day operations. Unfortunately, the NGO decided to move on to other projects and left Kolunga Village. KVF decided that it was important to pay the clinic personnel to keep the clinic operating, so we changed our fundraising focus, and now support the clinic full time.

 

The clinic serves Kolunga and numerous surrounding communities. The dedicated staff members see an average of 10,000 patients a year by providing family planning services and treating many diseases, from malaria and HIV/AIDS to dysentery, water-borne illnesses, diarrhea, and the common cold. They also provide vaccination services, community outreach and health education throughout the community. In 2015 we added a pharmacy so patients no longer need to travel to Mbita for their meds. All services are offered on a “pay as you can” basis which means KVF not only supports the salaries of the staff regardless of the client’s ability to pay, but also purchases equipment and supplies.

 

One of the greatest achievements of the Clinic is that it has become a model that other health care organizations also want to support by partnering with KVF. We are grateful to these organizations for extending our reach and ability to help the village: Viagenco operates social-economic programs to improve the quality of life and health of members of the community, and Tunza currently provides training and support for family planning and cervical cancer screening.

 

In 2018 we expanded the clinic to include a labor/delivery suite and hired more skilled nursing staff to make their services available 24/7, you never know when a baby is ready to be born. We also added 10 beds so that patients can stay overnight, for monitoring and additional care.

 

The clinic’s staff is ever growing and changing based on the needs of the community. We praise the dedication of the clinic Nurse

Magdalene Magwa for sharing her vision and inspiration with us, and guiding the building, treatment and staffing processes. We are forever appreciative of the clinicians, nurses and techs that make the Clinic a success.

 

KVF has sponsored 4 dental clinics affectionately named "Operation Toothbrush". Our volunteer dentist, Dr. Patrick Henry and hygienist, Jonelle Farr, join us annually at their own expense. We examine and treat 35-40 patients a day and our clinics last 5-7 days.

 

We are always looking for doctors, dentists and hygienist to join us. Are you interested? Can you connect us with someone you think might be interested? It's not all work, we do include fun adventures and outings to make the trip even more rewarding.

 

Funding the Clinic salaries is our biggest challenge. We are always looking towards the future, always searching for next year's funding so that the day to day operations can continue on as long as the people of Kolunga need our help.

The Water Project

 

Water can be a life threat or a life saver in Kenya. In Kolunga it is now a life saver.

 

In 2014 KVF -- with the generous help of Mark Ross, the Harvey Foundation, the Mears Family and many donors, completed a clean water initiative. Water is pumped from Lake Victoria, through the village, to a tank installed on the roof of a concrete tower. From the tank it is gravity-fed into the “LifeSaver®” unit below. When a villager wants clean, drinkable water, they pump a handle on the front of the yellow tank, the tank is pressurized, the water is pushed through a micro filtration system, and then the water is dispensed into their vessel. Simple and very effective.

 

Since installing the LifeSaver® the incidence of water borne illness has noticeably decreased in the village. Nurse Magdalene keeps very detailed records and is overjoyed with the health benefits she sees, and which are changing the lives of her community.

 

Maintenance of the system is also simple, yet costly. We are always in need of a back-up filter for when the one in use gets too dirty or too worn out to do its job. If you are interested in keeping the water flowing in Kolunga please contact us for more details or to donate.

 

The Miti Shamba

 

Theo Tebbutt has been working to develop a small-scale agroforestry nursery outside the village that will serve the people of Kolunga Village.

 

This began as his senior project at Summerfield Waldorf High School in Santa Rosa, California. The purpose of the project is to develop an agroforestry nursery utilizing tree crops appropriate to the climate that bring multiple benefits and on a scale suitable to the economics of the Rusinga Island community, where the Shamba is located in Kenya’s Homa Bay County.

 

As is the protocol of Kolunga Village Foundation, who mentored the project, the community, itself, chose the agroforestry nursery as the most appropriate to its needs and capacities. From its inception, this project has been by, for and about the women of Kolunga Village, a group of which has been given access to the shamba to engage in and help direct and inspire its development.

 

The initial goal of Miti Shamba is to produce tree crops that provide nutritional and medicinal benefits, offer a modest sustainable source of income, combat deforestation, and grow timber for value-added woodworking products to be sold locally. A secondary goal is that Miti Shamba serve as a template for future agroforestry plots around the island and county, at large, for the production of food and the promotion of reforestation. There is also the potential to model the ability to grow a

complete balanced diet by including a high yielding, resource conserving biologically-intensive demonstration garden in the Shamba.

 

In 2017 the Tebbutt Family started expanding the capabilities of the Shamba, adding a solar water pump. And, in 2019 they are sponsoring 3 day intensive workshops to teach the ladies Bio Intensive and Bio Diverse farming practices.

World AIDS Day

 

KVF passionately participates in the World AIDS Day celebration that is organized by Alphonce Okuku and the community each December 1st. It's an amazing celebration, honoring those that have died, the families that have survived, and the community as a whole. The event takes place on the soccer field of Kamasengre High School, in Kolunga Village. The community puts on skits, sings songs, reads poetry and make speeches about the devastation that HIV/AIDS has wreaked on the village. School children and politicians alike  participate. The clinic sets up HIV testing and counseling booths, a malaria screening tent and a general health & well being exam section. Viagenco and Tunza have birth control and family planning counselors on hand to counsel, teach and hand out condoms. The 2016 event featured a creative writing and drawing competition highlighting "How Has HIV/AIDS Effected My Community", four partial school scholarships were awarded to the winners. The day of observance is culminated with a rousing soccer match featuring the top two local teams.

© 2017 Kolunga Village Foundation. All rights reserved.

Kolunga Village Foundation is a 501 c3 nonprofit organization. Federal Tax ID #20-5108646