those villagers in remote areas who were most in need of surgery.
Francesca visited Kenya initially as a student in Dr. Smock’s group,
and was soon picked out by Korir who is said to have a distinctive
eye for people genuinely interested in making a difference.
“Wesley said what he does, when students and physicians visit
Kenya, is he sits back and tries to observe who is really interested in
their culture as opposed to just being on a trip,” Justin said. “And so
he pegged Francesca out pretty early, which was a good observance
on his part. He took her under his wing and pointed her out to Bill
and some other people. Now she’s done such great work, they’ve
promoted her to being on the Kenyan Kids Foundation’s Board of
Directors.”
Mr. Korir and his wife, Tarah, founded the Kenyan Kids Foundation in 2010, sponsoring children to attend school in Kenya,
which costs approximately $350 American dollars per student each
year. Because Kenyan residents are generally affected by poverty, a
household with several children might only be able to send one or
two to school each year.
After Francesca’s initial visit, she returned with Justin in March
of 2013 during the election which would send Wesley Korir to the
Kenyan Parliament. “Once we saw how this could really be a strong
relationship, we decided to do a community needs assessment,” said
Francesca, whose group chose a methodology known as Photo Voice,
where cameras were given to 13 Kenyan women in the region so
that local residents may articulate their own struggles.
“We asked them to portray barriers to their health in their community. After they collected photographs, we did individual and
group interviews to determine the themes of those barriers,” said
Justin teaching the local boys what a stethoscope does. They’re
always very interested to learn what it means to be a doctor, and he’s
always interested to learn what it means to be a kid in Kenya.
Francesca, who returned after the two month assessment process
to help the group rank the issues they felt took precedent.
Number one was the cost of school fees. Number two was the need
for fresh water, which Dr. Smock and Waterstep have been helping
to provide. The rankings gave the Kingerys as well as the Kenyan
government a direction for the issues the average Kenyan citizen
felt demanded the most attention. The Kenyan women’s group has
now continued its efforts and been given community organization
status to approach the government to fix societal needs. “This is
a women’s group in a tribal area of Kenya. For them to have this
ability is a major deal,” said Justin.
In addition to the two focal points of education and clean water,
the Kingerys began working in numerous other problem areas
throughout the region involving health and logistics. When Kenyan
residents were having difficulties with local health dispensaries,
the global health team worked to educate the inhabitants on other
nearby health options. “Maybe they don’t know there are options
a few miles away. In Kenya, there are six or seven different levels
of health care which are very structured, and it’s actually a pretty
good system though it’s underfunded,” said Justin.
Another issue developed from the remoteness of the region the
Kingerys work in, on the border of Kenya and Uganda. So far
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