Migori 101

Migori is a town in the southwestern Nyanza Province of Kenya and is the capital of the Migori District. The town is located 40 mi. south of Kisii and 14 mi. north of the Tanzanian border, near Lake Victoria.

The town is home to 46,576 people. Though Swahili is the official language of Kenya, English is spoken by many.

83% of Kenyans are Christian (48% protestant, 24% Catholic). Muslims make up 12% of the population, but live mostly in concentrated areas in the costal and eastern regions.

Migori is connected by road to the Maasai Mara National Reserve, a large game reserve. Named after the Maasai people (indigenous), the park is an extension of the Serengeti of Tanzania.

 Swahili 101

Hello – jambo

How are you? –

habari gani

Please – Tafadhali

Thank you – Asante

Good-bye – kwa heri

Healthcare in Kenya

Despite major achievements in the health sector, Kenya still faces many challenges. Preventable diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, pneumonia, diarrhea and malnutrition are the major child killers and responsible for much morbidity. Weak policies, inadequate health workers, weak management and poor leadership in most public health facilities are largely to blame. Gaps in Kenya’s healthcare system are filled by private and church run units, such as St. Joseph’s Mission Hospital where Medics to Africa volunteers serve year-round.

  

Infant Mortality

44 per 1000 births.

Risk of Maternal Death

1 in 38

Life Expectancy

50 years and dropping

 The need for medical volunteers is great.

“Good health care is very hard to find in this part of the world. We lived in a much bigger town just an hour and a half south [of Migori] in Tanzania, and the health care there was really shabby with women sharing beds while giving birth. The hospitals are always overcrowded. In spite of the bad conditions, desperate people come from many miles away by walking, bicycling, or catching a lift in the back of a passing pick-up truck.”             

- Kim Hill, Wycliff Missionary in Africa

Together, we can reach them.

 “Then the King will say, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, 
‘Truly I tell you, 
whatever you did for the least of these, 
you did for me.'
Matthew 25:34-40