why africa?
Mama Maria's Founder, Peter Kithene, is an African orphan. It is his personal insight into the dire needs of his homeland - ongoing, relentless needs that do not fluctuate by season or national disaster - that
drives Mama Maria. Mama Maria Kenya offers more than health care or the chance
to earn an income. We offer hope, the chance to be independent, to dream, and
the ability to fulfill those dreams. This was the chance Peter Kithene was
given. This is the chance he is passing on to his countrymen.
The focus of Mama Maria comes directly from Peter's life experiences growing up as an "ordinary African orphan" in rural Kenya. Orphaned at twelve, Peter was left to raise his siblings, nestled among a network of widows, belonging to a family counted among the "poorest of the poor" - people most in need of the hope Mama Maria now offers.
what does the mama maria clinic offer?
As in so many rural African villages, until Mama Maria began, no one in Peter Kithene's home village of Muhuru Bay, Kenya was trained in medicine. In villages such as these, when someone gets sick, they simply hope to get better. In many cases this ends tragically, and the result is no one is examined by a doctor for any illness. This continued to be true for the regions in and about Muhuru Bay, until August 2005, when the Mama Maria Clinic opened.
Mama Maria is working to fully launch her essential package of health services designed to offer:
• Basic ambulatory and short-term inpatient care
• Perinatal and maternal care, with HIV testing and counseling
• Pediatric care (with a special focus on the perilous ages of 1-5)
• Emergency transport for urgent/critical cases
• Vaccinations
Our
objective is to further develop sustainability as we promote the most critical
services the people stand in need of. Our program offers a basic package of
curative and preventive health services - separate than those typically provided
by hospitals (e.g. surgeries or specialized care). We create health services
that approach health issues comprehensively.
Mama Maria's services are offered to the entire community, with a special focus on the poorest of the poor; no person is turned away from the Mama Maria Clinic for inability to pay. We believe in adding value to our services, and in so doing charge a nominal fee to ensure patients follow treatment, take medications, return for follow-ups, and truly feel invested in their health.
What is unique to Mama Maria, and to Peter Kithene, is that the statistics we hear about that regularly come out of Africa are not merely numbers or illustrations: they are people. Real, breathing, worthy people who, like the rest of us, deserve basic health care and a chance to make something of their life.
Countless people in Peter's homeland long to be seen by a doctor.
Before Mama Maria, those in the Muhuru Bay region never get the chance. The doctors simply were not there to be seen. (Read More)
Today ... this is no longer true.