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The Yellowmen on Tour
February 2009

After the usual last minute panics the Yellowmen Team consisting of Rotarians Peter Stiles, John Relfe and Martin Mears plus Jeannie Stiles and Katy Woolley landed in Nairobi at the start of another ‘ tour of duty.’ Rtn. Eddie McCall and our driver Justus were already in Kenya and had been for some ten days. They had travelled down from Tikeet the previous day and unlike the rest of the party, who had spent the last 9 hours in the air, were well rested.
The 11 hours safari bus journey that followed is best glossed over and has been described in previous articles. On arriving at base camp in Marich Study Centre we were welcomed with a hot meal and a few Tusker Beers. This was to be a busy trip and so the next day and the nine that followed would be work days.

The aim of this trip was twofold – to continue building work on our clinic and to carry out a series of clinics. The building work consisted of supervising the setting out of the compound hedge, clearing, cutting and marking the fence line, planting lemon trees at the entrance to the site and pushing the workers to finish the John Cocker unit. On the medical side we wanted to have two major treatment clinics, a mother and baby clinic as well as three screening clinics. The aim of the screening clinics was to try and establish some health data concerning Pokot children. We had a good idea of the medical problems affecting adults (as seen here), but were unsure of those affecting children. Optometrist Peter Stiles was able to investigate the eye health of the children and Dr Thomas Ngolesia (our Pokot doctor) the general health. Both professionals would write up the results of the clinics so that they could be submitted to the Kenyan Health Ministry. Meetings with the District Commissioner in Marich and with the Right Honourable Wilson Litole in Nairobi would allow us to press home concerns on a variety of subjects to do with the medical programme.

Since our visit in October last, the work on the clinic had raced ahead. The John Cocker unit was virtually completed and by the time we left even the solar lighting and refrigeration plant was installed and working. The walls were painted white and the workmen were laying the concrete base on the verandas. It was brilliant to stand at the entrance to the compound (now grown to about 10 acres) and look at the rapidly emerging clinic. Work on the building that housed the three wards was also going on apace and the brickwork nearly complete. Talk was of finishing the ward building within a couple of months.

The screening of the children in three separate areas of Tikeet was a logistical nightmare. We needed to be able to process over 125 children a day if we were to meet our target. To do this we had to have at least that number in the compound at the start of the day. The children were brilliant, standing under the hot sun until called to see the medics. Katy, working as our photographer also doubled as child entertainer and organised games to keep the children happy. In the end we saw over 300 children between the ages of three and ten. It was of concern that the immunisation programme seen elsewhere in Kenya seemed to have broken down here and masses of children had not been immunised at all. Peter Stiles also noted the need for a Vitamin ‘A’ programme to help with continuing eye health.

As well as the screening we also held two general clinics and saw another two hundred and fifty patients, including about 70 mothers and babies. Though the majority of the children had a reasonable level of health there were many suffering the after effects of serious malaria and several suffering from leishmaniasis (sand fly disease). Malnutrition was evident in children from the deep bush. Amongst the adults, Peter saw many that had incurable eye conditions, though he was able to hand out quite a large number of ready readers to adults who thought their reading days were over. Looking at the face of a patient who is able to read again after many years is very moving. That look of incomprehension followed by smiles and in a few cases tears was something never to forget.


In the general clinics there was the usual range of illnesses with a great number of worm infestations, urinary infections and chest problems. Living in huts in which a fire burns causes real problems.

However, it was not all hard work. In between we had singing and dancing and feasting. At the end of a busy day with the safari bus packed with Yellowmen both British and Kenyan and the temperature still in the upper thirties we sang our way to the only shop, 25 kms from Tikeet, where we could have a coke and sit with the locals before driving the last 25 kms to our base in Marich.

Leaving Tikeet is always sad. The days there fly by and belonging becomes a total reality. Friendships, now developed over ten years in some cases, means that our Tikeet family never wants us to leave and presses us to come back very soon if we have to go. What a privilege it is to be there and to be part of this project.

As I write, the October team is being put together and hopefully the final steps towards the completion of the project will be taken. Meanwhile further fund-raising is needed. A fellow Rotarian from another club once asked who can go to Tikeet and of course the answer is anyone. If after reading this you want to get involved, contact the Yellowmen at Senlac Rotary Club.

Ready-readers will bring vision to remote area

Published Date: 29 January 2009. Hastings Observer

ONE hundred and twenty pairs of ready-readers delivered to opticians Barraclough Stiles and Partners on Wednesday will be going much further than the Bexhill practice.
Optometrist Peter Stiles has obtained them for a special project.
Last October, Peter and fellow members of the Rotary Club of Senlac - collectively known because of their club t-shirts as the "Yellowmen of Kadongdong" - paid the latest of a series of working visits to Kenya.
On February 24 they will be returning. There is more work to do and the ready-readers donated by Buchmann UK Ltd. will play a key part.
Managing director Andrew Brandi was at the Western Road practice on Wednesday to present Peter with the spectacles.
Peter explained: "The Yellowmen of Kadongdong are Senlac Rotarians who have been building a clinic in the Pokot region of Northern Kenya, one of the poorest regions in an area of nomadic people living in isolated homesteads.
"The team were there in October last year and oversaw the continuing building of a clinic in Teekeet and completion of one treatment room.
"The nearest hospital is 35 kilometres away."
As there has never been any medical or optical help in the area, Peter undertook several medical clinics and trained a local Daktari, providing him with his own ophthalmoscope and other equipment.
While he was there he discovered that malnutrition and Vitamin A deficiency in young children is causing blindness and even premature death, especially from measles and diarhoea.
He has submitted a report on his findings to the local MP in Kenya.
It highlights the dreadful eye conditions which are going untreated through lack of medication.
Much of the premature blindness, measles and diarrhoea could be prevented. Just two Vitamin A tablets a year - costing a few pence - would solve much of the problem.
He says: "Now it is hoped that a Vitamin A programme will be started to help these people in an area forgotten by the world's great charities."
Senlac Rotary Club draws its members from Battle, Bexhill and surrounding area.
Retired headmaster Rotarian Eddie McCall, who started the clnic project, is taking out a party of schoolchildren who will be carrying the ready-readers.
They will be joined by Peter and his wife Jeannie together with fellow Rotarians jon Relfe and Martin Mears.
Andrew Brandi said Buchmann were delighted to supply the German-made BMS ready-readers which were end-of-range stock.
Peter says: "I saw 35 kids - 18 of whom would have been classed as blind or partially-sighted in the UK.
"The awful part is to see children and see that their corneas have already started to go."
For others, the ready-readers will be invaluable.
"Few of the people we see can actually read. But they need to do close work. We saw people who had been unable to see close up for 20 or 30 years - all for the need of ready readers.
The hot, dry climate means that any eye injury is swiftly infected.
This could be avoided by the use of ointments but when Peter eventually obtained some from the hospital the stock was two years out of date.
When the roads became impassable, he and the Daktari and a government official walked 8 kilometres in 45 degree heat to get to patients ointment that needed to have been kept at 15 degrees!
Funds are still needed by Senlac Rotary as the club is committed to its ongoing project. They are aiming to raise money for a well to supply fresh water, solar heating for refrigerators and for much-needed medical equipment.
Anyone interested in supporting the Yellowmen is asked to contact yellowmen@eddiemcall.com

News

Due to the turmoil created following the elections late 2007 early 2008 the Yellowmen were unable to visit in February last year. However a small group did make it in October 2008, and another visit is being undertaken now.

Although the Yellowmen have been unable to visit Marich fund raising has not stopped and various events including a slot in last years Rotary Conference has been very successful in raising funds.

Full reports and pictures we hope will be available soon