Friends United Meeting is marking the fourth anniversary this month of reaching an agreement with East Africa Yearly Meeting for management of the hospital at Kaimosi in Kenya. Since taking over management of the hospital in 2006 FUM has concentrated on stabilising finance and management of the hospital, improving buildings and equipment and level of services. In particular, FUM has worked to ensure that staff are paid regularly and on time, thus improving morale at the institution that had been in long-term decline. A 2005 Kenyan government survey found that infant mortality in the Kaimosi hospital catchment area was three times that of the neighbouring district. ‘Restoring the hospital is a commitment to those families, those children and that community whose healthcare needs Kaimosi hospital has failed in the past’, said FUM field officer Eden Grace.

Recent developments have included opening an HIV and AIDS clinic, replacing leaky roofs and purchase of an ambulance. ‘Buying an ambulance allows us to engage in community outreach and respond to emergencies’, explained Eden Grace, who serves on the management team of the hospital, which meets weekly.

Quakers have placed healthcare at the heart of their mission in Kenya since the early 1900s. Missionaries first arrived in Kenya in 1902 and quickly realised that they needed to provide health care. A doctor joined them within the first couple of years. First services were offered out of a hut and then grew into a hospital. The current buildings were opened in the mid-1960s when the hospital was dedicated by the president of Kenya, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Then it was renowned as the leading hospital across east and central Africa with patients coming for treatment from across Kenya and the whole region. It also had a school of nursing.

In the 1970s the trend among American mission boards was for less direct involvement and handing over to local leadership, but without support and training or recognition of the capacity required to run a modern hospital. In the 1980s the hospital was taken over by the government but was stripped of resources, equipment and finances.

In the 1990s the hospital was handed back to East Africa Yearly Meeting, which had the desire but not the funds to rebuild the hospital and its services. Negotiations with FUM began.

See www.fum.org for more information.