12/19/97

News directors, editors: Photographs of the OU-COM doctors in Kenya are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/~univnews/pix. Appropriate photos are marked Kenya 1 through Kenya 6 on the Web site. For more information, contact Dwight Woodward or Kelli Whitlock at 614-593-1043.

ATHENS, Ohio -- A 29-member health care and research team from Ohio University's College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-COM) on a medical mission to Kenya has braved floods, a cholera outbreak and a nationwide strike by nurses during the group's month-long mission to the east African nation.

Led by Benson Bonyo, a fourth-year OU-COM medical student and native Kenyan, the team arrived in Nairobi Nov. 28 on their way to provide medical care at three hospitals in Kissumu and rural clinics in Ahero and Mosogo. The team is accompanied by researchers in Ohio University's Tropical and Geographical Disease Institute, who are collecting information on malaria and other tropical diseases.

Heavy rains and flooding have forced thousands of Kenyans from their homes, making travel difficult for the medical team and Kenyans seeking treatment at the clinics, said Gary Snyder, associate director for communication in OU-COM and member of the Kenyan team.

A nationwide strike by nurses seeking better pay has increased the need for medical caregivers. Since their arrival, the team has seen 250 to 300 patients a day in the rural Ahero clinic where they are stationed. They have delivered three babies and treated patients with a variety of diseases, including cholera, which killed one young girl, Snyder said.

For Bonyo, the trip fulfills a promise he made to himself nearly 30 years ago when he saw his 9-month-old sister die of dehydration.

"People on the streets of Ahero have told me they feel we are like angels sent from God to help them," Bonyo said from Kenya. "We can't solve all the health care problems of my country, but hopefully our work will have a ripple effect and needless deaths like those of my sister can be avoided."

OU-COM's emphasis is on family medicine, and team members met Kenyan officials to establish student and physician exchanges with hospitals and universities in Kenya. In addition to medical service, the four-week program, Students Health Assistance/Rural Experience (SHARE) Kenya II, is giving OU-COM students a first-hand understanding of medical problems in an undeveloped country where an estimated 70 percent of the population lacks access to good health care.

One barrier to treatment for many Kenyan residents is money. Health care is expensive in this area, more than most can afford. The OU-COM team confronted this problem when a 9-year-old boy came into the clinic with an infection in his thigh. The child required surgery that his family couldn't afford, so members of the SHARE team contributed more than $600 to offset the child's medical expenses.

This is the sort of problem Bonyo knew as a child in Kenya. Growing up in a village of farmers with an average income of $100 a year, Bonyo got a break when he was awarded a scholarship to a Roman Catholic boarding school where the nuns encouraged him to pursue college and a medical career. After graduating from high school, Bonyo applied to dozens of schools, but only one, Northwood Community College in Texas, offered him a full-tuition scholarship with room and board. Bonyo raised the money for airfare to the United States by bicycling door to door in his village, displaying the scholarship letter and collecting small donations.

He went on to graduate from the University of Texas and was admitted to OU-COM in 1991 and is scheduled to receive his doctor of osteopathic medicine degree from OU-COM in June 1998. With help from Bonyo's SHARE colleagues, that event will be marked by a visit from Bonyo's father. The group has pledged to raise the funds necessary for Bonyo's father to make his first trip to America to see his son graduate.