The Maasai community living around the Maasai Mara Game Reserve have been treated to a free medical camp and drugs organized by Tourism partners in Narok county.
The three days has seen over 700 patients receive free health services among them Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), breast and prostate cancer, arthritis, diabetes, dental problems, Ultrasounds, heart checks, eye clinics and hypertension screening.
The initiative is organized by Land and life foundation in partnership with lodges, camps, conservancies and Safari-link air travel and is the 11 medical camp contacted in the area from 2011.
Land life coordinator Nabila Wissanji said the initiative brings the number of patients treated through the initiative to over 11,000 and was started due to the huge influx of patients in the region who cannot afford basic medical needs and are also far from medical facilities.
“Slightly over 700 patients have been screened and treated in this medical camp because it was shorter than the previous ones which have been a week long and we used to see over 1000 patients,” said Nabila during a presser at the health center on Saturday.
Nabila said the Land and life organization which is part of Elewana group of hotels and camps came in and sought partnership with other tourism partners and sponsor the medical camp due to high poverty levels and the high cost of medical care, many families in the region are not able to access quality health care.
“The Land & Life annual medical camps are three-day experiences that happen to benefit the local communities by providing free high quality medical care to the local population. They are a joint effort with our partners within the tourism and travel industry, and together the conservation and hospitality organizations provide the funding so we can arrange free medical services,” said Nabila.
She said her organization has also teamed up with Kicheche Community Trust, Kicheche Camps, Elephant Pepper Camp and the Elewana Collection, Safari-link air, Oasis Health, Saruni Mara, prime care Hospital in Narok and Maasai Mara Mara conservancies association.
In arrangement Safari-link, a partner in every annual medical camp since 2017 provides free air tickets to the professional team of doctors and Land & Life Staff and the camps provide accommodation food for the three days.
And for its third year running, over 350 women were tested for free on Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) testing led by a volunteer doctor from Florida in the United States of America Eileen Dowling.
Eileen, who works in Cleveland Clinic Florida as a gynecologist, came as a tourist to the Maasai Mara and while on a tour of the village she found a cancer screening going on and she volunteered herself to be coming every year.
“From 2018 I felt compelled to dedicate my life to help these people and join the team to prevent cervical cancer and protect them and I always come here every October for the camp,” said Eileen during the interview at the health center.
She said HPV screening of women from 2019, 27 percent of women who have turned up for screening tested positive. She said she has also helped 50 girls from Primary schools around Aitong to be fascinated against HPV.
The World Health Organization (WHO) strategy towards the elimination of Cancer by 2030 envisions 90 per cent of girls to be fully vaccinated with the HPV vaccine by 15 years of age, 70 per cent of women are screened with a high-precision test at 35 and 45 years of age; and 90% per cent of women identified with cervical disease receive treatment and care.