On a mission to Kenya
Manam : The Bahrain Medical Aid Society has sent an expedition team to Kenya to shed light and increase awareness on the severe shortages in clean water resources and gain support in arriving at means to solve the situation.
The trip, which coincides with the World Water Day celebrated on the 22nd of March, will be headed by Fatima Al-Mansoori and will include a group of volunteers including coach Hamsa Aeed, Haifa Juma, Dr Mohamed Al-Shaaban, Photographer Hussain Shehab, and Dr Danya Ayed.
The Bahrain Medical Aid believes access to clean and safe water is a right for everyone and comes in line with the global 2030 vision through the Sustainable Development Goals.
“This trip is more of an awareness trip than a medical trip where the group would be visiting a few villages in Kenya. The idea is to study the life of the people there and work together to ensure a better life for the people there,” Mohamed Al-Shaaban, a doctor as well as a journalist told DT News.
“Our seven member consists of people from different walks of life where we plan on visiting orphanages and medical centre to provide support to the people there,” he added.
The Trip, Dr Al-Shaaban said, will raise awareness to generate the fund we need for building water wells in these villages. “In one of the villages we are visiting kids have to walk almost 5 hours just one way to collect water.”
Al Shaaban added: “This is to prevent the chances of acquiring diseases like Hepatitis A, Cholera, Salmonella, Typhoid, and other microbes that might infect people due to unsanitary drinking water.”
WHO statistics show that the lack of clean water kills 1.8 million people every year- 88% of these cases are due to the mix of sewage and drinking water.
Despite the ongoing global efforts, 884 million people worldwide do not have access to clean water, and around 2.6 billion lack access to effective sanitation systems. All this leads to an average of almost 5000 infant and child mortalities every day- all of which are preventable.
“Kenya has a population of 46 million, 41% of the population still use primitive means of getting their water needs, 59% get their water from outdated filtering systems, especially in rural areas. Thus, this mission to Kenya involves a wide range of social media activists and professionals to help shed more light on the issue and garner as much support as possible,” Dr Al-Shaaban said.
The Bahrain Medical Aid Society was set up in 2013 and has participated in a number of expeditions, last of which was in February when Fatima Mansoori led a mission to Bangladesh to oversee the needs of the Rohingya refugees. During that visit, a clinic was set up, servicing 100 patients a day in collaboration with international medical aid agencies. Moreover, Bahrain Medical Aid has standing partnerships with a number of aid agencies around the globe. This visit will help establish a constant and direct line with these agencies in Kenya for future volunteer visits and expeditions from Bahrain.
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