Therapeutic Touch for the Maasai

Hi again

I was able to get the image of the Maasai man up on the site. As you can see the picture was taken when I was in the Narok area of Kenya with Pastor Peter - he's on the left. We are helping a man who is very ill by providing the one thing that we can easily provide as home-based care - Therapeutic Touch.

You can see the small Maasai home in the background, with a ladder up to the roof where some work is happening - or maybe not because the man in the family is ill.

Good news is that this man who had malaria, and got so sick he could no longer talk, is now in the Hospital under care. And the almost good news is that the Hair Today - Health Care Tomorrow Campaign will greatly help Osopet, Nissi and KCYP get people to clinics and Hospitals before their situation is so dire.

Health Care means Life

Hi

We are having trouble getting images on to the blogspot, but otherwise things are moving ahead. Cathy has looked into what we need for wig making and it seems that we need bundles of tissue paper and a rose box. We also need to see about getting battery operated shearers. If anyone has a line on any of these - please let one of us know.

There is plenty of work to do to get ready for the event, including getting really clear information from Osopet, Nissi and KCYP about the potential impact of an emergency Health Care Fund. I know that donations made to health care, both while I was traveling in Kenya, and for the positive women in the KCYP Nutrition project, kept people alive. Sadly, the converse is also true. When health care needs arise and someone can't get to care, they have died. We have now lost three women in Kibera. Rose died at the end of March.

But on a brighter note - none of the positive children under the Osopet Pediatric Care Project have died. And those children are looking happy and brightly towards a future. More later. Love -peg

Another request

It's frustrating not to be able to send the funds needed to get people to care.

We had another request from our Kenyan friends at Osopet. They have, thanks to positively AFRICA donors, been able to pay the bills for one of the children that broke her arm, but now need help to cover the Hospital costs of a man I met about two months ago. He was not well then - I gave him a Therapeutic Touch treatment and he improved for a short time. Then he started getting weaker and weaker. Pastor Peter asked for help, but there is no program in place for adults and health care - that's why we are shaving our heads - to kick off this much needed program!
The man could not wait and Pastor Peter took him to the local Hospital. Turns out the man is HIV positive, so he will need a lot of care NOW - to get the opportunistic infections under control, and then build his strength enough to go back home. Home - where living conditions are not made for those of us who are not hearty. I'll try to find a picture of him - but for now here I am teaching some of the Maasai women involved in home-based care to do 'Capacitar' head holds.
These women are the most amazingly strong women I have ever met! They carry huge containers of water miles a day, they cook on open fires for large families, they look after animals, they build their homes, ... Most have shaved their heads because managing long hair is not easy, especially when water is scarce. I will be proud to hold my bald head like the Maasai women I met!

It's not about the hair

I woke this morning thinking about the idea of having no hair. It's a bit daunting, but I think it makes a lot of sense when you look at the cause and the effect. I need to start letting friends know that I am doing this and also get Svea and Cathy to comment on this blogspot. It's really not about the hair, but about the cause. We can't continue to sit back complacent about a world where people are dying because they can't afford to go to a doctor - and then they can't afford the simplest of medications once they are at the doctors.

Thanks for coming onto the blog and please make comments - if you feel inclined and certainly get in touch and make a pledge - if you feel compelled.

Hair Today - Health Care Tomorrow

I'm really beginning to get excited and nervous about the Hair Today - Health Care Tomorrow event. I'm excited because I think we can reach our target of $10,000. We already have a generous pledge of $1000!

But what will I look like without hair? Hair has always been important to me and now I have a really good reason to say goodbye to all my hair. If we can raise awareness about the plight of many people in Kenya, and all of Africa and most of the world for that matter. It just doesn't make sense that people die because they can't afford to go to a clinic, get medicine and get care!

We hope to raise enough to help three of positively AFRICA/VIDEA's projects reach out with a health care fund. Food and water are not enough - people need health care when they are sick.


(The picture is from my last hair trim. I made brushes using my hair. To purchase one of these unique paint brushes, email me at peggy@positivelyafrica.org.)