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 Milton and Fred Ochieng' were born and raised in the rural village of Lwala, tucked away in southwestern Kenya near Lake Victoria. The nearest town to Lwala is two and a half hours away on foot, accessible by a seasonal dirt road. They grew up tending the cows in the morning, attending school during the day, and studying at night with the help of their parents, both teachers. They studied hard, and Milton scored so well on his graduating exam from primary school that he was sent to Nairobi for high school. From there his hard work landed him acceptance at Dartmouth College in the United States. Since Milton's family could not cover his passage, the village came together and sold chickens, goats and cows to raise the $900 necessary to buy him a one-way ticket to the United States. Before he left they held a great celebration in his honor, and impressed upon him the responsibility he carried with him as their representative in America.
 A few short years later Milton and his younger brother Fred, who followed in his footsteps to Dartmouth, received notice that their parents were dying of AIDS. They returned to Lwala for their mother's funeral. In those trying days, their father Erastus shared his own dying wish with them: a health clinic in Lwala. He had a dream that nobody else would die in Lwala for lack of access to basic health care. They called together a committee in the village to begin making plans and called it the Lwala Village Development Committee. Milton and Fred returned from Lwala with their father's dream on their hearts, and began to raise support in their sphere of influence in the United States. They spread the word on the soccer field, in their classes, and through their Christian fellowship, and as the months passed the money trickled in and a committee of Americans formed to support the effort in Lwala.
 Erastus passed away just a week before the Lwala Village Development Committee broke ground on the clinic. Another family of orphaned brothers donated land for the clinic, and villagers gathered to dig a foundation for the clinic and dredge sand from the river to make mortar to build the brick walls. Everyone played a part because everyone was affected; by HIV/AIDS; by the lack of health care; by the 30km distance to nearby hospitals that might as well have been 1000km in the rainy season. Even in the dry season, their poverty kept them out of these health care facilities. And AIDS continued to take its toll; as many as 30% of people in Lwala may be infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
 Under Milton and Fred's direction, the committees in Lwala and the U.S. joined forces to form the Lwala Community Alliance, a U.S.-based 501(c)3 non-profit organization, whose mission is to build the fundamental human capacity of the people of western Kenya to advance their own comprehensive well being, including physical health, educational opportunity, economic freedom, cultural vitality and spiritual growth.  On April 2nd, 2007, after over two years of fundraising and construction, the Lwala Community Alliance celebrated the opening of the Ochieng' Memorial Lwala Community Health Center. Since that day it has seen over 1,500 patients every month, mostly women and children. At present the health center provides basic primary care and maternal and child health services. It provides these services free of charge to approximately 85% of patients. The provision of affordable quality care has generated an endless stream of people seeking care, walking as far as ten and fifteen miles to the clinic. The staff of the clinic is entirely Kenyan, including a manager, a clinical officer, three nurses, a laboratory technician, a pharmacist, a secretary, and several support staff.
The Lwala Community Alliance has also provided funding for 23 talented and needy students from Lwala to attend high school, who have been selected by a village education committee.  The enormous needs in Lwala, and the excitement of the people of Lwala, have continued to push our sights ahead. We are planning a comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care program to be rolled out in late 2008, to meet the needs of the approximately 30% of people in Lwala who are HIV positive, and to keep the other 70% safe from infection. We are also planning to expand our maternal and child health services by creating a maternity ward. Though we hadn't planned to do this so soon, women in the village made their voice heard by showing up at the clinic in labor! To support these new programs and to strengthen our existing services we are raising funds to build a new facility for our HIV/AIDS and maternity programs, to build additional staff housing, to install running water at the clinic, and to purchase an ambulance to deliver emergent cases to definitive hospital care.
 The Lwala Village Development Committee continues to think big. They envision microloans for small enterprise development in Lwala, and training students from Lwala to be the clinic's future nurses and doctors. The Lwala Community Alliance will continue to equip the people of Lwala to pursue their comprehensive well-being... physically, educationally, economically, culturally and spiritually.
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 The documentary "Sons of Lwala" follows our founders, Milton and Fred Ochieng" on their journey from their home village of Lwala, Kenya to medical school in the United States, and back home to build Lwala's first health clinic. Learn more »   Your support is vital to sustaining our existing programs and to rolling out our exciting new initiatives in water, HIV/AIDS, maternity and medical education. Your donation helps provide these necessary services, but it does more than that. Your support helps to empower the people of Lwala - to provide jobs, training, education, and improved health that will make the future brighter for all of Lwala. Support Lwala » |
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