A BUSY WEEK

THREE SPECIAL VISITORS TO ARROW WEB HOSPITAL

What a day! On Friday Bram welcomed three international visitors from different organisations to Arrow Web Hospital.

Paul from Tour d'Afrique, Toronto Canada

As you know, Paul McManus from Tour d'Afrique had hoped to be able to visit us this week, after he and his colleagues had given us the very generous gift of twenty five bikes, at a local ceremony in Nairobi on Sunday.

Paul was very keen to see for himself the difference these bikes make to the work of our Community Outreach Team members, who rely on them to reach even further into the slums. One of the main roles of our Community Outreach Team is to let people know about the services we offer at the hospital, particularly to encourage expectant mothers to come to the antenatal clinics regularly, have their babies delivered here and then bring their babies to our immunisation clinics. http://www.tourdafrique.com/

John from COCO, Newcastle UK

John, a new member of COCO's team based in Newcastle in the UK visited us too, for the first time. You may remember that Lucy now a director at COCO, and her colleague Kat came to see us last May. As a result, COCO decided to support some of our work with children. COCO has also already pledged over £3000 or 400,000 Ksh to help transport the container of essential medical equipment and suppplies from the UK to Mombasa.

John was particularly interested to hear about our Comprehensive Care Project, targeted at some of our poorest children and orphans. This project ensures there is enough annual funding for the treatment of these children at Arrow Web Hospital, and for the childhood immunisations they need. This year we aim to double the number of children we help in this way to two hundred. These children are the most vulnerable in our community to diseases and illness, many of which are life threatening.

We also discussed with John our plans to set up a system of solar panels, which would give us a continuous electricity supply. At the moment we have great problems when the supply breaks down and equipment fails us. http://www.coco.org.uk/

Jacq from Moray Community Health and Social Care Partnership, Moray UK

Friday was Jacq's first opportunity to see Arrow Web Hospital for herself, having arrived from the UK on Thursday night. Of course she had heard all about us from her colleagues Jamie and Liz from NHS Grampian, who visited us last September. She brought with her a laptop, camera and video camera which had been donated by some of our friends in the UK. She also brought a huge bag of essential medical supplies which Dr Ishmael Onyango, our senior doctor was really pleased with.

Jacq is a self funding volunteer who will be working with us for two weeks. She will be looking at ways of recording all our activity electronically and helping Bram set up electronic systems to make managing our finances easier and more efficient. She hopes to go out into the community with Rachel our Community Outreach Team leader, to find out more about the team's work. This will help with fundraising and in planning for the future. MHSCP link: http://tinyurl.com/4nfnotm

We look forward to hearing more about Jacq's visit and hopefully there will be plenty photos Bram!

Paul, John and Jacq outside Arrow Web Hospital

We are always so pleased to welcome visitors to Arrow Web Hospital and to know that friends all over the world support us. If you would like to hear more about the work we do or would like to arrange a visit, please contact us at http://www.arrowkenya.org/

GENEROSITY FROM INTERNATIONAL DONORS

A BIG THANK YOU TO TOUR D'AFRIQUE

Another year has passed and again we must thank Tour d'Afrique for their great generosity in donating twenty five new bikes for our Community Outreach Team. At a well attended celebration yesterday, the bikes were handed over to us as the riders make their way on the four month long cycle ride from Cairo to Cape Town.

These bikes are so essential to the services we provide in the community, allowing our community support workers to reach a much wider area and of course much more quickly.

The Tour d'Afrique tents

Organising the seating for the speeches

Job our assistant board secretary says thank you

Bram looks at the bikes with the guys from Tour d'Afrique

"What great bikes"

A final thank you and "safe journey" to South Africa from Bram

Many thanks to Mrs Rono for organising the event

More about Tour d'Afrique and the Tour d'Afrique Foundation

Tour d'Afrique is a company based in Toronto which organises cycle tours and races, all over the world. ( http://www.tourdafrique.com/ ) It is famous for its annual tour from Cairo to Cape Town and it is on this long journey that its cyclists stop to hand over bikes to Arrow Kenya. You can read about all their amazing adventures on the blog on their website.

The Tour d'Afrique Foundation is a key part of the company vision and was set up at the same time as the company. The Foundation's mission is :

"To give something back to the people and communities that we pass through on our cycling tours" and

"To raise consciousness about bicycles as an alternative, and in many ways better and more beneficial means of transport"

One of the ways the Foundation achieves its objectives is by donating bikes to individuals and organisations in Africa.

Children from the local orphanage say "Thank you Tour d'Afrique for our bikes too - we hope to see you next year and wish you a safe journey to Cape Town"

We are really pleased that Paul McManus from Tour d'Afrique is finding time to visit us at Arrow Web Hospital. Bram will be able to show him around and tell him more about how the bikes really make a difference to the work of our Community Outreach Team.

TOUR D'AFRIQUE DONATES 15 ADDITIONAL BICYCLES

Many of you may remember that last year, Tour D'Afrique made a generous donation of bicycles for the Arrow Web Hospital community health team.  We are so pleased to share pictures from this year's bicycle donation ceremony held again at the beautiful Indaba East Africa Campsite in Nairobi.  Tour D'Afrique has made another very generous donation of 15 bicycles to Arrow Web Hospital.  We thank you for making it possible for us to reach out to more and more people.  Enjoy the pictures from the ceremony!

Watching the children of the Masai community dance for the bicycle donation ceremony.

Volunteers looking on watching the children dance.

Chairman of Arrow Web Hospital chatting with members of the Masai community.

Mike with the Chairman of Arrow Web Hospital.

One of the Arrow Web Hospital doctors addressing those in attendance at the bicycle donation ceremony.

Chairman of Arrow Web Hospital with the bicycles donated to our community health team.

2009 in Review

As the year draws to a close, we wanted to take some time to reflect back on all that has happened and express our extreme gratitude to all those involved.  Each year since its inception, our hospital has continued to grow and develop.  2009 was no exception.  Without question, your ongoing support and encouragement has helped us get where we are today.  While our hospital still has many needs, we are grateful for what we have, and we are incredibly blessed that we have been able to impact our community in a positive way each and every day.

Our medical team has touched the lives of many people this year.  We welcomed 3 new students into our patient care assistance program.  We took part in Keeping Kenya Polio Free and 1500 children under the age of 5 benefited from vaccinations given by our doctors.  We were able to offer eye exams to 523 people.  Most recently, this month we were able to add a dentist to our medical team and so far 50 people have benefited from his care.

Critical improvements have also been made to our hospital.  Most importantly, due in large part to our accreditation status improving our financial situation, we have been able to maintain required medications in our pharmacy.  Thanks to a generous grant from Kitchen Table Charities Trust, we were able to purchase equipment for our medical laboratory.  We hired a carpenter who helped build shelving to hold the new equipment.  He also built a beautiful reception desk to welcome patients to our facility.  Through the support of the Safaricom Foundation, we were able to purchase some of the equipment required to begin limited dental services at the hospital as well.

In 2009, we have learned that incredible things can happen through networking.  When people around the world join hands fantastic things happen.  This was truly what brought us 11 boxes of donated medical supplies from Motorsport Medical Services in the UK.  Without the assistance of AVIF Volunteers, Kenya Airways and much persistence these supplies may have never gotten to us.  The Tour d’Afrique Foundation donated bicycles to our community outreach team which has helped tremendously with transportation out into the local community, and Baby DM made a generous donation which has benefited many new mothers and helped us welcome the newly born members of our community in style.

This year, our hospital has made many new friends and welcomed multiple visitors to our facility.  We had the pleasure of providing a tour for an official from the Embassy of Japan in Kenya.  Monica, from Friends of Kenya, paid us a visit as well.  Two years ago, our hospital dreamed of one day being able to welcome international medical volunteers to work alongside our doctors.  In 2009, this became a reality.  Dr. John Gilbert from the UK was our very first international medical volunteer. We then welcomed Amanda Brookes from the UK, Tom Liber from Sweden and Dr. Sharmini Ragunathan also from the UK.  Wes Downer, a documentary filmmaker from the United States also traveled to Kenya and spent a few weeks with us learning about the work we do in order to help us bring our hospital to the next stage of its development.

We expect many more great things to come in 2010.  We are expecting another visit from the Embassy of Japan in Kenya and are hopeful they will work with us to build our own facility so that we can stop paying rent and use that money instead to help our patients.  We are also expecting a group of Japanese medical students early next year. We look forward to forging relationships with partners around the world to keep the residents of Kayole-Soweto healthy. We are keenly aware that as a result of good health they will lead happy and more productive lives. 

We cannot do any of these things without the ongoing support and encouragement and our volunteers.  The hospital still has many needs.  Medical equipment, donations to help support the cost of transporting refurbished equipment to the hospital, and monetary donations to help support the day to day expenses are all very welcome.  We are looking forward to 2010 with great anticipation and hope to continue building positive relationships with all of you.  On behalf of the staff of Arrow Web Hospital, we wish you each a very Merry Christmas and all of the very best for the New Year ahead!

Bicycle Donation Ceremony

We had a fabulous time at the Indaba Explorations Campsite. On Saturday, we had the priviledge of attending a bicycle donation ceremony sponsored by the Tour d'Afrique Foundation. Tour d'Afrique kindly donated 5 bicycles to the Arrow Web Hospital community health team. We are very grateful for this generous donation and eager to put the bicycles to good use. Thank you so much to all involved for including us!

Bicycles Donated for Arrow Web Hospital Community Health Team

For the last several weeks, we have been discussing options for better transportation for the 5 members of the Arrow Web Hospital Community Health Team. We decided that bicycles with carriers may be the best and most feasible option right now. Last weekend, I sent out several emails and fully expected information back regarding how to apply for assistance, or requirements for submitting a proposal. The next morning, I was very happy to receive an email back from the Tour D'Afrique Foundation. They informed me that they have a bicycle donation scheduled in Nairobi on March 7th. They also told me they could have 5 bicycles ready for Arrow Web Hospital if someone could come to the donation ceremony, which of course, Bramuel happily agreed to do.

I personally would like to extend a very hearty thank you to Mike from the Tour D'Afrique Foundation for making this happen with short notice. We are so appreciative to you for your efforts on behalf of the hospital. Bramuel looks forward to attending the donation ceremony being held on March 7th at the Indaba Explorations campsite. Thank you so much for making such a big difference!