Barry Simmons's Blogs
-
Kenya diaries: Building health and hope
There's an effort going on across the country to build a health clinic in a tiny village in Kenya. For a year now, it has slowly attracted help from California to New Hampshire, but it all began in Nashville with a Vanderbilt student who had a special connection. Doctors at the Vanderbilt Emergency room are in the business of performing miracles. But the miracle he’s performing outside of the hospital sets second-year medical student Milton Ochieng’ apart from the rest. It started with a blueprint for a health clinic in Milton’s village in Kenya. It would be a place where people in the village could finally get medical treatment and drugs. When Vanderbilt heard of his plan, they donated medicine. When Milton returned home for spring break in March, it was not for a vacation. He went back to...
-
Kenya diaries: Delivering clean water in Kenya
Clean water is a rare commodity in some parts of the world. In Kenya, people often drink polluted water, because there is nothing else available. With that, a middle Tennessee organization decided to help. Jena Lee runs a nonprofit called Blood: Water Mission. It was started by the rock band Jars of Clay, who had a hit called “Flood.” The water in Kenya, however, is not popular. It is often loaded with diseases, such as cholera. “With cholera, just give yourself 24 hours of vomiting, diarrhea, you're gone,” Lee’s partner Benjamin said. Sixty percent of the diseases people die from in Kenya come from the water. Typhoid, diarrhea, and cholera kill tens of thousands of Kenyans a year. They are literally drinking poison. \"It's the best they can have. So, they would rather take it than do without...
-
Kenya diaries: What the AIDS crisis leaves behind
Everywhere you turn, it stares you in the face. AIDS has made death a growth industry in Kisumu, Kenya with an unbelievable demand for carpenters. In fact, there are several businesses that revolve around death. But while AIDS is a problem, water is a problem too. Jena Lee from Nashville runs the non-profit mission “Blood: Water Mission.” The mission was set up by the rock band, Jars of Clay. Blood: Water had installed a well in a village called Nyamonge a year before, and Jena was returning to see how life had changed. The look of life was evident on their faces, and the clean water is saving lives. But in the midst of celebration and new life, fresh dirt is a reminder of the graves, and many of the deaths are the result of AIDS. Eunice Odhiobo lost her husband to the...
Your donation helps continue the IRP's work to inform the public about international issues.
Make A Gift