Tabitha Clinic A and B

Habari zenu!

Tuesday morning we had our first staff meeting, which helped me understand much more about what each of the programs and program officers were doing within CFK. After the meeting we ventured into Kibera to explore Tabitha Clinic A and B, both of which are free clinics set up by CFK. I was astounded in every way I know how to define the word. We visited clinic A first which is tucked into Soweto West, one of the villages in Kibera. A narrow pathway off the main road led us to a cement hall with open rooms off to one side and benches with waiting patients on the other. The first room on our right had benches lining the walls, full of patients waiting to have their medical history taken. The next room is what I would call a triage room, where patients present their symptoms to a medical professional and are then categorized by numbers which indicate the severity of their condition. Then they are called in order to one of the two doctors. The room had a small desk with a computer, and a simple bed with a white curtain around it. There is a small pharmacy (chemist) with a variety of drugs on an open shelf. The patient is separate from the pharmacist and the drugs by chicken fence and a wood door. There is a small refrigerator to keep medicines that need refrigeration. There is also a lab, which has one microscope, several samples, lots of paperwork and a sign on the door indicating prices of having labs processed:

Pregnancy test- 50 shillings (almost a dollar)
Urinalysis- 35 shillings
Stool analysis- 35 shillings
HIV test- 35 shillings

and a few more. If patients can't afford the small fee (which many cannot), they get there labs anyway. There is one final room where the doctors can get tea and where all the patient records are held (in paper form of course). The doctors often don't have time for lunch breaks, so they grab tea and keep seeing patients. There is very little privacy, almost all the rooms are open to the hallway. The HIPPA folks in the US would be pulling their hair out.

Tabitha B is about half a kilometer away. It is nearly the same, but there are rooms on both sides of the hall and there is no lab or refrigerator.

Child birth is all done in the home, no doctors, no drugs. There is one GYN doctor, who is a woman, but regular gyn care is not standard. All of the doctors are Kenyan (yay!).

Very interesting, I am hoping to meet with the director of the clinics in the next few days because seeing them has absolutely taken me. I have so many questions.

I am back at the office this morning, and we are about to take an extensive walk through Kibera. More soon, much love.

Alisa