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Healthcare
Good Healthcare is beyond the means of many Rusinga families.
But for our students it doesn’t have to be!
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Since opening in 2019, Bright Light has offered free medical care to all its students. The lack of a strong local healthcare infrastructure means our students and their families do not have sufficient access to medications, medical services, and trained professionals.
The Rusinga population in this rural area of West Africa faces many health challenges, including the risk of infectious diseases like Malaria, HIV/AIDS, TB, and cholera. Respiratory problems from the overuse of wood burning fires and poor sanitation are particularly evident in young children. Unavailable family planning services or pre and post-natal care can lead to high maternity and child mortality rates. Rusinga has only one small, local dispensary on the far side of the island and Bright Light parents must walk there with a sick or injured child to seek care. It is not equipped to treat difficult medical conditions that require more advanced care.
Jackline Opala is our monthly visiting nurse.
She arrives on a motorbike with a large container of medicines for most common health conditions and for the treatment of students with specific medical conditions such as sickle cell anemia. A medical-grade scale is used to monitor weight and height, which are commonly used standards for assessing growth in Africa.
During her visits, Jackie also teaches a class to students’ parents in home health care and hygiene. When COVID-19 hit our community, Jackie and the Bright Light staff took rigorous measures to ensure that students and their parents were instructed in how to protect themselves and remain safe from infection.
Nurse Jackie’s monthly visits include individual examinations of all eighty students, diagnostic and medical treatment of common illnesses and injuries, and vaccinations.
Physical activity and recreation are an important part of our Health Care program - building strength, promoting team spirit with sports, and just having fun. In 2023, the school was gifted with an outdoor slide, a merry go round, soccer balls and badminton equipment.
Maintaining good health means there is always more to be done. Greater funding will allow Jackie and a colleague to visit at least twice a month. Yearly dental and vision exams and treatment could be provided by a visiting group of doctors. Ideally, a social worker would be on staff to monitor our students’ home hygiene conditions, familial relationships and assist mothers with family planning or options for dealing with abuse in the home. We would offer private mentoring sessions with individual students who suffer with mental health problems.
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