Student Loans Helped Osoro Build a Business and Expand Health Care in Rural Kenya

September 20, 2018He had almost given up on  his dream of owning a health care enterprise. Then he learned about the Afya Elimu Fund. It is 10AM local time, and in Karantini village, Kenya, an elderly man with a walking stick is limping out of the consultations room at Bethany Medical Clinic. You can see he is being careful not to hurt his leg. This is because he ’s recovering from a festering wound that had almost become gangrenous.He is the ninth patient since daybreak for health worker Statius Osoro Ondiba, 24, the proprietor of the medical facility.For months before visiting the clinic, the old man, who is HIV-positive and lives in a hard-to-reach area, had tried all sorts of traditional medicines to heal himself —without success. Due to his ill health, he could not travel to the nearest big health facility, Keroka sub-Country Hospital, which is nine kilometers away.Also, the road from his village to Keroka town sometimes becomes impassable when it rains.Bethany Medical Clinic is closer to home. Situated within the old man ’s village, the clinic serves up to 40 clients in an average day. It offers family planning, maternal and child health care, lab services, a pharmacy, and consultations on common ailments and diseases such as malaria and typhoid.Without the Afya Elimu Fund, Osoro would never have been able to finish his studies.Osoro holds a diploma in clinical medicine. Without it, he wouldn ’t be qualified to run the clinic. And without the help of a low-int...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: news