Mji Wa Huruma Part 1: The People

After we returned to Nairobi in August, Lisa began volunteering for a “medical dispensary” in a nearby slum. Huruma is a community of 4000 people living in small cardboard and metal shacks just 3 minutes from campus. It is in the neighbourhood called Runda and came into existence in the late 1970s when the Kenyan people were displaced to build large homes owned by wealthy politicians and business owners. The people living in Huruma now work as guards, gardeners, house keepers, and nannies for the families living in those large homes.

In recent years, a school and a health clinic were created in order to provide service to the people living in Huruma. The health clinic is accountable to the Nairobi City Council and Kenya’s Ministry of Health. Some of the salaries and some of the supplies are provided by the government, but this is inadequate for the needs of the community. The clinic survives because of private donations. Each client pays 20 shillings (about 25 cents) to be assessed and treated.Robert is a “Clinical Officer” at the clinic. He has 4 years of university education but he is not a doctor. To become a medical doctor is a different 4 year program. Robert works 5 days a week and assesses approximately 50 people each day (half of them children under 5 years old). The most common diagnoses are pneumonia, Upper Respiratory Infections, and diarrhea with some dehydration. This week we also saw a few cases of malaria, chickenpox, burns, infected wounds, and jiggers.

There are two nurses on staff (paid through the donations of individuals). Edith (at top) and Jen (right) do things that nurses in Canada would be shocked to see. They each have a 2 year certificate that allows them to be called “Registered Nurses”. They could continue their nursing education and gain a diploma or a degree. In this photo Jen is making swabs (like QTips) from cotton wool -- not as easy as you'd think! Josephine is a third nurse employed by the Ministry. She has a diploma in nursing and is paid 37,000 shillings per month. This is approximately equal to $525 Canadian Dollars per month and is a coveted salary. Josephine is on a 5 month leave right now because she has not been allowed to take any vacation for the past 5 years. She drops by the clinic occasionally.


Lucy works at the clinic as a cleaner. Lucy tries to keep the cement floors and counter tops clean. It is a never-ending job because of the dust everywhere. Lack of rain means that every breeze brings large volumes of dust into the clinic. The sheets hanging on the windows help to keep some dirt away but the screens are now looking very dirty (no glass in windows).
Ruth’s job is to register each person as they arrive. Each client is given a number and a card. The filing of the cards is a unique system of numbers, years, ages, and cardboard boxes sitting in the lobby. While Kenyans are very modest people, privacy of information is an unknown concept.Despite the lack of resources, space, and supplies, this is a great place to work! We laugh a lot and Lisa is learning much about African culture and health practices. Right now Lisa is mostly doing administrative work – recording statistics in old-fashioned ledgers, completing monthly reports for the Ministry of Health in triplicate using carbon paper. It is a unique nursing experience.