Sons of Lwala

The village of Lwala is a small farming community of 1500 in Kenya. Two things stand out in Lwala: the sense of community and the lack of health care. In Lwala poverty, impassable roads during the rainy season, lack of electricity, unsafe drinking water and poor nutrition create an environment where poor health is rampant and access to care practically nonexistent. Malaria, diarrhea, skin diseases, respiratory diseases and tuberculosis are rampant. Women give birth in their dirt-floored huts, and complications in delivery often lead to death. Children suffer from malnutrition, which makes worse the problems of malaria, diarrhea and skin diseases. But despite their difficulty, these problems pale in comparison to the problem of HIV/AIDS, which is the primary cause of death in Lwala and infects as much as a third of the population. The nearest hospital is over 40 miles away. Lwala is basically a community struggling to keep afloat. In all this misery and despair, the residents of Lwala somehow carry themselves with a sense of joy.

‘Sons of Lwala’ is a documentary film that follows Milton and Fred Ochieng’. Milton and Fred are two brothers from Kenya whose village sent them to America to become doctors. But after losing both parents to AIDS they were left with a heartbreaking task: to return home and finish the health clinic their father started before getting sick. Unable to raise enough money on their own, the brothers were joined by students, politicians, and Christian rock band - Jars of Clay to launch a fundraising drive among young people across the United States. The documentary follows Milton and Fred on their incredible journey as they find a way, despite all odds, to open their village’s first and only clinic. Both have been speaking all over the northeast lately to doctor’s conventions while filmmaker Barry Simmons been showing the film in dozens of venues, from universities to medical conferences to church gatherings to fund the clinic. The clinic has already made a huge difference in the lives of Kenyans living in and near Lwala. But the greatest challenge facing the clinic continues to be funding. The lack of an ambulance to transport patients, refrigeration to store drugs like snake anti-venom, staffing and supplies, especially medicine. The clinic is staffed by one physician’s assistant and three nurses, a nurse’s aide, a lab technician and a pharmacist. Treatment is free for children under 5, seniors over 70, pregnant women and HIV/AIDS patients. The cost for those who pay is usually about 70 cents a visit.

The Lwala villagers sold livestock, the equivalent of us selling our cars, to send Milton and Fred Ochieng’ to the United States for medical training. Milton is currently pursuing his residency in St. Louis, Missouri and Fred is a third year med student at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. The brothers’ achievement is a village affair and it is also a family affair. Two of their sisters are also in the U.S.: Florence is a second-year nursing student at St. Joseph’s College of Nursing in Syracuse, New York and Grace is attending high school in New Hampshire. A younger brother, Solomon, is in high primary school in Kenya. He is taken care of by the oldest brother Omondi who was enrolled at a local teacher’s college before dropping out to care for the sick parents. Omondi looks after the homestead and runs the clinic in Lwala.

When Milton left Kenya to study in the U.S., he became the first person from his village to board an airplane. He received a college scholarship to Dartmouth but was unable to afford the airfare until neighbors came up with the money by selling chickens and cows. Fred followed his brother to Dartmouth two years later, becoming only the second person from their village to set foot in the United States. Fred raised $9,000 at a Christian conference while at Dartmouth in one day to begin the building of their father’s clinic.

Since its independence from Britain in 1963, Kenya has achieved a level of corruption unrivaled almost anywhere else in the world. According to studies, the government steals and wastes $1 billion. Yet Kenya spends just $14 per person on health each year and pays it young doctors about what a U.S. cab driver makes. It’s no wonder that nearly 1,700 physicians have fled Kenya in the last 10 years in search of better jobs, leaving their families and neighbors in the villages with no one to care for them.

The “Sons of Lwala” DVD is available and on sale for $19.99 at www.sonsoflwala.com. According to the producers all proceeds go to the clinic. If you use Facebook, join the Sons of Lwala group to receive regular updates on where the film is being shown and how you can make a difference in this project.

To find out more about the village visit: www.lwalacommunityalliance.org?>http://www.lwalacommunityalliance.org