From Joe and Sarah Ellen Mamlin
Sarah Ellen and I spent 20 of the last 25 years living in Kenya. You can imagine our excitement when the AMPATH program offered us a chance to return during the last two weeks of June. Our return was prompted by a series of challenging circumstances for AMPATH Kenya and the hope that we could be part of the dialogue yielding the best way forward.
But for the moment, we forgot the “work” and bathed in the outpouring of love we felt from the moment we stepped off the plane and realized we were “home” again!
Sarah Ellen and Joe Mamlin with the Sally Test Child Life Team in Kenya
Despite current challenges created by changes outside of our control, there is no panic here! Over the last 35 years we have survived more than a few challenges:
When we started, the medical school was just a few weeks old with almost no faculty. Now its graduates work across Kenya with some becoming professors, deans, hospital CEOs and cabinet ministers.
We started with a small district hospital with a single X-ray machine. Now we have Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital doing open heart surgery, organ transplants and modern cancer care.
The pediatric ward was full of children languishing and ignored between treatments. Now we have Kenya’s first pediatric hospital with the Sally Test Child Life Program transforming their wards into a place of laughter and hope. This program not only has spread across the hospital but also across Kenya and Africa.
Just 25 years ago, many of the young people of Kenya lay dying without hope of treatment for their HIV. Today, the AMPATH HIV program is one of the world’s largest and most successful. They have met their target of finding >95% of those with HIV; getting >95% on modern treatment; and >95% with undetectable viral loads.
Now is the time for the AMPATH team to ponder a way forward. There are no shortage of great ideas, but it was clear to Sarah Ellen and me that the real hope lies in the powerful Kenyan leadership and their AMPATH counterparts. They have the commitment and deep values needed to respond creatively to each challenge that comes their way. The AMPATH story is far from ending; it is entering a new and exciting next chapter.
Sarah Ellen and Joe Mamlin at IU House in Eldoret, Kenya.
Just before we prepared to head back to the US, I received an email from Dr. Laud Boateng, the leader on the ground in AMPATH Ghana. He was facing many of the same things as Kenya as Ghana was attempting to roll outs its version of universal health insurance. A follow-up Zoom call made it clear that the challenges in Kenya are not unique. More importantly, the same AMPATH values and commitment that offers hope to Kenya is ready to respond to the needs of Ghana. The problems are global, but colleagues across AMPATH Global are working together to bring innovative solutions.
As we left Kenya, perhaps for the last time, a poem presented to me years ago came to mind. It ends with, “So Africa smiled a little when you left.” “We are in you” Africa said. “You have not left us yet.”
We headed home with the assurance that “Africa was in us.” Forever.
Joe and Sarah Ellen