As I was searching for the final numbers and data collected from the recent mission to Kenya, I could not find any updates on the website. It has been such a busy few weeks since we returned from Kenya, that I did not even blog about it!
Thirty-one members made up this team to Kenya. Surgeons, anesthesiologists, pediatric intensivists, administration and IT support, pastors, businessmen and women, support staff from Vietnam, India, Zimbabwe and the USA gathered in Kenya to make an impact that would last an eternity!
Seventy-seven patients along with their family members were all counseled on the evil of human trafficking. Awareness and education is the number one way to prevent this crime. We can only know the problem once it is identified and explained. Many of the parents who came to the camp never even heard the term exploitation or human trafficking.
Because of the partnership with Anointed of God ministries, Nakuru Level 5 Hospital and other leaders of this community, areas of Kenya will be educated on human trafficking. There were 41 patients who were deemed healthy enough for surgery. Of those 14 were females and 27 were male. Eight of those young ladies were under age 18, and six were adults. Of our young men, 23 were under age 18, and 4 were adults males.
There is of course a list of patients remaining who were sick, or malnourished or too young for surgery. A five-day-old newborn girl named Esther captured all our hearts. Her mother seemed to be in denial, but her grandmother was strong and capable. Keep this precious family in your thoughts. LWR gave them Dr. Brown's specialized feeding bottles and accessories, and Philip shared with them the need to love and nurture that baby, so that she would be strong and ready for surgery when the time came.
Sometimes the work is hard and heartbreaking, but always the work is reward. Let's continue the work,
Until the World is Cleft-Free!
by Susan Mathews | Apr 1,2020