"Mothers Union Pharmacy Project" -- by Dr. Christiana Russ

I am just returning from 3 weeks in Kenya and a week in South Africa. In Kenya I was working with the diocese of Maseno North Mother’s Union on a de-worming project that we started just under a year ago. It was an extraordinary experience and we gave medicine to treat intestinal worm infections in approximately 2500 children at about 10 parishes while I was there. The women were planning to reach another 5 parishes after I left. Seeing so many children, most of whom are either orphaned by AIDS or otherwise vulnerable, is overwhelming. When they sing to you in welcome, it’s indescribable, particularly when you and they know that you came to give them 5 unfortunate tasting tablets to chew and swallow.

At several of the parishes there was a child brought forward with obvious longstanding illness. One boy had a bad infection in his lower leg, which upon taking him to the hospital was found to involve a fractured bone as well. Another girl had terrible looking eyes – bright red with ulcers visible on her cornea. Severe vitamin A deficiency can do that, but so can other things.

Neither of these situations is unusual. Visits to these rural parishes, especially the more remote ones, usually turns up one or two children who are in serious need of medical attention, and whose illnesses are so progressed that they’ve clearly been worsening over a period of weeks to months. The overall infant and child mortality is very high in this region of Kenya, an indication that a lot of children get quite ill and don’t receive medical care. It is common however for families to purchase over the counter medications to try to treat illnesses themselves. So I was especially interested when I heard about a new possible venture for the Mother’s Union to address this problem.

Several of the women have received some training as community health workers and others are interested in it. A public health professor visited Maseno recently and had the following idea: give a few women in each parish start-up money for a pharmacy which they can run in their rural area with medication obtained from the hospital. Medications such as Tylenol, ibuprofen, anti-malarials and basic antibiotics are available in pharmacies around Kenya, but studies have shown up to half of them or more don’t actually contain adequate active ingredient. Medications at Maseno hospital are purchased from a company that checks the meds, so they are known to be good. While selling medications to treat simple and common complaints, these women can also be trained to pick out danger signs or indicators that someone needs to be referred to hospital. They could screen for malnutrition and refer kids to the hospital if necessary or potentially to a feeding program. With some training they could function quite well as community health workers while simultaneously making a bit of money.

I was so excited about this idea that I am using money donated from St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Chatham, MA to start a pilot project in two of the parishes. If it goes well we can fund-raise to expand it. If we can find a way to pick out children (and adults) who need true medical attention earlier in their disease process, we will be able to alleviate a lot of suffering.

To find out how you and your church can support the Mothers Union Pharmacy Project, contact Christiana here.

Dr. Christiana Russ is a pediatrician doing her residency at Boston Children's Hospital, currently working at an Anglican mission hospital in Kenya through a joint arrangement with Children's and the Diocese of Massachusetts. She is also chair of the Executive Council Standing Commission on HIV/AIDS.