Lessons learned from history

With hindsight, we were not surprised that the Samburu had been hit by cholera; trachoma is endemic and the two diseases affect very similar socio-economic groups. Indeed Moorfields Eye Hospital was founded in 1805 to deal with an epidemic of trachoma in London, just before the world’s first cholera pandemic also hit London in 1835. [...]

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Blinding trachoma endemic

Trachoma is a chronic kerato-conjunctivitis caused by Chlamydia trachomatis and is the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide. Globally, active trachoma affects an estimated 150 million people, most of them children. About 5.5 million people are blind or at risk of blindness as a consequence of trachoma. Repeated episodes of re-infection within a family cause [...]

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Educating people to help themselves

Primary schools are as difficult to get to as hospitals in this area, often requiring days of walking. Education is at the heart of improving the Samburu people’s health and environment so we are building a network of semi-permanent schools to provide basic primary school education for the nomadic Samburu children. While I was visiting [...]

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Drought strikes the Samburu again

The Samburu region of northern Kenya is a harsh, inhospitable place and unfortunately the rains failed again this year; it was drier than I have ever seen it. This drought, combined with endemic trachoma, malnourishment and the cholera epidemic reinforced the need to provide sustainable clean water supplies and educate the people on how to [...]

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Samburu nomadic pastoralists

The Samburu are a tribe of nomadic pastoralists who live in the remote lands north of Mount Kenya. They live in small settlements called manyattas, consisting of a cluster of huts encircling a central area used to house the livestock. Manyattas are surrounded by a thorny boundary to keep marauding wild animals out. Once the [...]

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Kenya- A land of lions, mountains and tribes

Kenya lies along the Indian Ocean and is bordered by Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda and Sudan. The capital city is Nairobi or “Nai-robbery” as it is affectionately known. As the population rapidly increases, the city has become ever more dangerous, with car-jackings and kidnappings an everyday occurrence; the best advice is to stay in Nairobi [...]

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Cholera hits the eye project area

There’s not much time to contemplate the stark contrast between the squeaky clean operating rooms of Vancouver and the dusty tent I am now working in, surrounded by Samburu children clinging on to life while their bodies are gripped by cholera, causing violent bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea. Buckets of putrid green bodily fluids stand [...]

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