PCEA (Presbyterian Church of East Africa) Chogoria Hospital was founded in 1922 by a group of Scottish Presbyterian missionaries. While Kenyan-run, it currently hosts short-term and long-term missionaries from a variety of organizations to support their mission of patient care and teaching.

AIC (Africa Inland Church) Litein Hospital began as a small dispensary as part of the AIM (Africa Inland Mission) station founded in 1924. There are no longer any long-term Western missionaries there now that we have left, but the hospital is still eager to have any volunteers come. While we were at Litein, Matthew was asked by the hospital to help start a mental health clinic, which over the years came to thrive and is currently fundraising to build an inpatient mental health unit. You can learn more about this work at LiteinMentalHealth.org.

The Kabarak University Family Medicine Residency began in 2015. The goal of the program is to train Family Physicians for Kenya who are capable leaders, scholars, and advocates within their communities. It is a bit more intense than American Family Medicine programs, as it is 4 years long and has a strong focus on public health, research, and population health management.

As the residency grows, the plan is to place residents for a significant portion of their training in more rural hospitals like AIC Litein so that residents have opportunities to develop their skills in an environment similar to the one that they would be expected to work and practice in. You can read more about why AIC Litein is a great place for teaching and practicing environment here.

While Kenya does not have the same profound health challenges as South Sudan, there is still a great need for health care training here. It still has a relatively high maternal mortality rate (roughly in the top 30 worldwide) and numerous people with poor access to reliable health care. Like many other developing countries that have seen their economies improve. it is also starting to grapple with the problem of non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension. Because Family Medicine equips physicians to be health leaders capable of dealing with common, life-threatening diseases as well as care longitudinally for populations, training Kenyan family doctors is an important part of improving the health systems here. The residency also accepts trainees from all over East Africa and has a heart to send out well-equipped health professionals to other places with greater health needs — many of which also represent people groups unreached by the Gospel.

Our work in Kenya at AIC Litein is meant to strengthen the local hospital and augment its capacity to serve the community in Jesus’ name while training health professionals who will do the same all over the nation and region.