Kenyan eager to help his village

Luka Kapkiai grew up in a Kenyan village in Africa of about 1,000 people, near the equator and not far from Lake Victoria. Flora and fauna abound, but its picturesque qualities are deceiving, Kapkiai told Iola Rotarians Thursday.
Now a science instructor at Neosho County Community College, he would like to change the social and economic environment of where he was raised, and encouraged Rotarians to help.
Kapkiai earned degrees at Abilene (Texas) Christian University and the University of Kansas, before taking the teaching job in Chanute. He, wife Sarah, a nurse at Windsor Place, and their three children live in Iola.
“I’m blessed to be here,” he said.
In a wide-ranging discussion supported by PowerPoint Kapkiai proposed that poverty in much of Kenya, including where he lived, was the result of shortcomings in education, health care and economic stability.
About 43 million people live in Kenya and the average wage is $1,800 a year, prompted in part by 40 percent unemployment and 14 percent inflation. The negatives are exacerbated by lack of national political will to provide better for the populace and rampant corruption, he said.
He showed images of a health clinic built in the late 1990s near his village, which looks inviting from the outside. Interior views are much different.
A maternity ward has one bed, all records are written in a simple book and only one qualified health care provider is at the clinic. Anther picture showed a support person calling the provider, tardy that day, to come open the clinic, with patients lounging on the ground nearby.
Yet another image showed a laboratory with counters and cabinets — all empty.
“There is absolutely nothing in the laboratory,” he said.
He asked if Rotary might help with equipment.
A week ago Rotarians heard about the Medical Supply Network, Inc., a District 6110 project in Tulsa that collects surplus equipment and medical supplies and distributes the worldwide. The caveat is that MSNI ships only to ports of entry, with in-country distribution done by Rotary clubs in recipient countries.
“I don’t know if there are any Rotary clubs in Kenya,” Kapkiai said, and allowed if there were the chances of things sent without escort were unlikely to reach the clinic near his village, with corruption being the obstacle.

IN SPITE of political and social hurdles, Kapkiai has been relentless in his efforts to help family, friends and others living in his village.
He proposed efforts to get equipment to the clinic, including hearing aids and eyeglasses, and medical missions to provide hands-on expertise.
“A medical mission (group) in one day could treat many people,” he said.
In a broader view for the future, Kapkiai said he hoped volunteers could be found to train clinic workers. Also, he said an ambulance would be a significant step forward.
“The only way people have to get to the clinic,” from his village and others in the area, “is to walk or ride a motorbike,” he said, with many people too ill to do either.
A mobile clinic would give health advantage to a vastly larger number of people, he said.
Kapkiai and a brother built a school on land his parents own. It opened in 2007 and has about 250 students, preschool to sixth grade. An aside is an athletic training facility  — Kenya has produced many outstanding runners — for children and adults.
“No shoes,” he said while showing an image of children preparing to run. “That’s a need we have. I didn’t wear shoes until I went to high school,” because it was a requirement.
His ultimate goal is to have a community resource center that encompasses a clinic, school and other facilities, which when taken all together would improve the Kenyans’ health, education and economic stability.