Kenya News & Notes

Update: After our first immersion and assessment trip in May/June 2006, members of our first group began a relationship with community leaders in Embulbul, Kenya, a resource-poor community filled with residents rich in talent and desire for employment and skills training. A group of medical students from Loyola, including 3 from the first trip, returned at the end of February 2007 to continue working with the residents in this community. Among our activities for this trip, we partnered local successful Kenyan artists to assess and train artists in Embulbul; used GPS/GIS technology to begin designing the first map of the community (est. 7000 residents); started developing a rudimentary business plan with local community leaders for an arts coop and after school art program; followed up on a community-developed soccer team; and addressed environmental sanitation, including purchasing materials for a regular community clean-up, the first one in which we participated with community members. After we finish USMLE Step I (June 2007) medical licensure exams we will discuss next steps with each other and our community leader friends James and Daniel in Embulbul. We will also start a blog site and discuss how to move forward with our student-run initiative in terms of fundraising. Please stay tuned and visit throughout the summer and fall for ways to be involved! Thanks.

Spring 2007 Embulbul Activities List (click to view Word document)

Conferences/Presentations related to our solidarity work in Kenya:

July 17, 2006 "Assessing health in Kenya: A social determinants approach" - Yale University Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, Justin List, MAR

October 14, 2006 "Doing Justice through Global Service: Model Program for Med and Pre-med Student Volunteers to Resource Poor Areas" - Loyola University Chicago - Student Leadership Institute, “Leading Beyond the Divide: A Closer Look at Diversity, Unity, Community and Justice”, Andrew Loehrer, Kathleen Harrison, PhD

October 14, 2006 - Awakening Justice After Kenya: The Power of Listening & Narrative in Medical Students’ Vocational Development - - Loyola University Chicago - Student Leadership Institute, “Leading Beyond the Divide: A Closer Look at Diversity, Unity, Community and Justice”, Lisa Dunning, Kathleen Harrison, PhD

April 21-22, 2007

Poster presentation: "The Pathology of Poverty: Healthcare Needs Assessment Study in Selected Resource-Poor Areas of Kenya." J List, L Dunning, A Loehrer et al.

Unite for Sight International Health Conference, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA

Poster presentation: "Model for a Regionally-based International Medical Volunteer Program to Resource-Poor Areas." K Harrison, A Loehrer, J List, L Dunning et al.

Unite for Sight International Health Conference, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA

Articles:

"Learning to listen in a resource-poor international setting: a medical student’s encounter with the power of narrative in Kenya" by Justin List, MAR

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/17066.html

(This article relays some experiences and reflections from our first trip to Kenya May/June 2006)

Berwyn Gazette newspaper article in preparation for summer 2006 trip (1/2)

Gazette (2/2)

Children of Embulbul June 2006

Photo by Justin List

Daily Nation (mainstream Kenyan newspaper)

http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/

World news about Kenya, including breaking news and archival articles published in The New York Times

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/kenya/index.html?8qa

News from Kenya - MSF

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/kenya.cfm

Fighting corruption in Africa
Kenya’s entire government is under pressure to resign after a report described corruption at the highest levels and forced the finance minister to quit. Liberia’s new president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, has dismissed all of the political appointees in that country’s finance ministry because of graft. And South Africa’s leader, Thabo Mbeki, who last year sacked his deputy for corruption, is calling on Africa to clean up its act. Is the continent finally getting tough on graft?

http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_VQRSDJG

Consular Information Sheet

http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1151.html

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