Service in Action

By Judy Wolf, Immediate Past President of the Rotary Club of Davis, California, USA

Kenya is a land of utter beauty, stunning exotic animals, crowded road-side markets, robust farmlands, and friendly people. Astonishingly, nearly 5000 Kenyan women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year, and 50% will die from this disease.  A disease that is nearly 100% preventable.

Our vocational training team left for Kenya in October 2016 in hopes of making a difference in the lives of these brave women. We couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride, knowing that we were a part of a team, organized by the Rotary Club of Davis (United States) through a Rotary Foundation Global Grant, sent to Kenya to provide cervical cancer screenings, treatment, and education to women in the poor and needy region of South Nyanza. Kenya has a population of almost 13 million women aged 15 years and older who are at risk of developing cervical cancer. The bedrock of economic life in Kenya revolves around women working in their prime. And when we save women, we save their children as well.

During our first team visit, we set up medical clinics at Homabay County Referral Hospital and Kendu Bay Sub-District Hospital. The medical team, consisting of a medical director, four doctors, and a native Kenyan nurse practitioner, spent the first seven days at Homabay where 163 cervical examinations were performed. These routine examinations led to four women needing cryotherapy to freeze lesions and three women receiving the lifesaving Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure (LEEP). Sadly, one of the ladies was discovered to have terminal cervical cancer. Our team was in awe of her courage and strength as she sat with her husband while the Kenyan physician explained to her the stark truth of her situation.   We will never forget this beautiful woman and her husband.

Kendu Bay Sub-District Hospital was our next life-saving visit. There, the team examined 215 women and performed five cryotherapy treatments and six LEEPs. Thankfully, most of the women were found to be disease-free.

Judy Wolf (front left) with Vocational Training Team members

We are proud to report that our trip was successful. The team trained Kenyan physicians and nurses on how to identify cervical lesions, and now the trained doctors and nurses are equipped to carry out the work and train other Kenyan medical professionals.

We look forward to our second team trip in June 2017 to the same region to do follow-up examinations and treatment, and offer additional training. During our final trip in November 2017, we’ll hold follow-up examinations, conduct a skills assessment of the trained medical professionals, and donate medical equipment to each of the hospitals.

We are profoundly grateful to The Rotary Foundation and the clubs that supported this life-saving global grant. We share a sense of honor and deep satisfaction to have been able to serve the women of Kenya in partnership with our Rotary community.

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