Posted on Friday, September 02 2005 - 12:27 AM - Alumni

Second-year Vanderbilt medical student Milton Oludhe Ochieng' '04went home this past summer to the Lwala village in Kenya where he grew up.

Ochleng' had more than just a summer job, however--he had a vision. Ochieng' spent his summer collaborating with the Kenyan government, Dartmouth University, non-profit organizations and the people of the Lwala village to build a year-round community clinic that will improve access to health care for the 1500 members of the community.

The clinic was designed to provide a first line of intervention in medical emergencies, to provide outpatient treatment of a variety of illnesses, to sponsor child immunization outreaches, to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and to provide a way to transport people quickly to and from the nearest hospital.

In his early years, Ochieng' attended a boarding school in Kenya that frequently sends students to the United States for college-level education.

He matriculated at Dartmouth College and decided that he wanted to build a clinic in his home village after a service trip to Nicaragua during his sophomore year of undergraduate studies.

Ochieng' then came to Vanderbilt as a medical school student.

“Vanderbilt told me that I could do research, community health or international health, so rather than going back to Nicaragua, I thought it would be good to start something new in a totally different place, and for me, that was easiest to do in Kenya,” Ochieng' said. “I kind of felt I owed it to my village. The whole village came together and paid for my ticket to come (to study in America).”

In Ochieng's plan, Vanderbilt undergraduates would team up with Dartmouth students, local women groups and youth groups to visit Lwala village for a month over the summer.

Students would not only continue construction of the clinic, but would also get involved in the Lwala village through teaching science, math, English and public health/HIV awareness in local primary and secondary schools.

“We hope that education will help the women, children and villagers at large learn to be more aware of what causes certain illnesses, how to prevent those illnesses and how better to recognize those illnesses. If they are better informed about the diseases, it will aid in bringing better health,” Ochieng' said.

While Ochieng' continues his medical studies at Vanderbilt, his elder brother is overseeing the project in Kenya, and is also working with the village-appointed Project Management Committee that Ochieng' formed to oversee the organization and implementation of the clinic.

“The construction is still going on, and we are at the level of roofing. There are three phases of construction. We hope to be done with the first phase of construction in late November,” Ochieng' said.



Read the article