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Facts of the Nyakach Plateau :
1. 20,000 people live on the Nyakach Plateau. 2. In rural areas like the Nakach Plateau, services are provided by health centers and dispensing clinics, though these often lack facilities and trained staff 3. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Kenya has just one doctor and 12 nurses/midwives for every 10,000 people. 4. Major diseases in Kenya. a. Kenya has a high rate of water-borne and mosquito-carried diseases within its many water sources. b. Malaria strikes over 8 million people each year. c. Leading cause of moratality among Kenyans is HIV/AIDS which kills around 80,000 people each year. An estimated 1.2 million children are without one or both parents because of this disease. 1.5 million Kenyans live with HIV today though more than half are not receiving anti-retroviral therapy ( according to the WHO 2010 guidelines for treatment. More than 700 people a day die of HIV-related illnesses. The prevalence rate for women have nearly twice the rate of men. 5. Over 500,00 women globally die every year due to maternal causes, and half of all global maternal deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. The 2010 maternal mortality rate per 100,00 births for Kenya is 530. Women under 24 years of age are especially vulnerable because the risk of developing complications during pregnancy and child birth. |
Our Mission :
To change the lives of people in rural Kenya by ensuring their hospital, Bethlehem Home, remains financially self-sustainable, and to increase awareness of healthcare needs in rural Kenya. We do this one bandana at a time. The Bandanas 2 Bandaids Story : From Our Founder In 2012, I went to Kenya for the first time with my daughter, Shannon, to visit the Nyakach Plateau, a remote area 90 minutes outside of Kisumu. Shannon had previously been to Kenya four times and was introduced to the people on the Plateau by one of her Baylor University professors, Dr. Lisa Baker. Since [2009], Dr. Baker has been taking groups of students, doctors and others to the Nyakach Plateau to provide medical care to people of that region. To that end, she also established a charitable organization, Straw to Bread. In 2014, the board of Straw to Bread decided to build a medical hospital on the Plateau, so my husband and I contributed and helped support their fundraising. In October 2015, the Bethlehem Home Hospital opened its doors, and is now home to the first full-time doctor and pharmacist on the Nyakach Plateau. The hospital is equipped with a birthing room, examination rooms, a pharmacy, and rooms for overnight patients. Patients travel up to two hours to obtain care from the Bethlehem Home Hospital, as there is nothing comparable in the surrounding area. Most people on the Nyakatch Plateau are very poor and cannot pay for basic medical care. Through meeting these people and hearing their stories, my heart was touched, and I had to get involved. While the opening of the hospital was a major accomplishment, sustainability is key. Upon my second visit to the Nyakach in 2015, I realized that I could do something to help sustain the medical hospital—out of this realization, Bandanas 2 Bandaids was born. People in the United States love both their alma maters and their dogs, making bandanas the perfect product to show off both their dogs and their alma maters at the same time. Bandanas 2 Bandaids manufactures dog bandanas in collegiate and holiday fabrics, and all profits from our product go to help purchase new equipment for the Bethlehem Home Hospital on the Nyakach Plateau. Thanks for your support! Cheryl Wood, Founder | Bandanas 2 Bandaids 'IT'S MORE THAN A BANDANA... IT'S A CAUSE.' ALL PROFITS DONATED TO THE BETHLEHEM HOME HOSPITAL ON THE NYAKACH PLATEAU IN KENYA. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BETHLEHEM HOME HOSPITAL - PLEASE VISIT OUR SISTER ORGANIZATION AT : WWW.STRAWTOBREAD.ORG |
