Eight years ago, Kenyan villagers sold their livestock to buy a plane ticket for Milton Ochieng' to attend college in America. Now a doctor, Ochieng' is paying them back by building a free medical clinic.
In the tiny village of Lwala, Kenya, $900 is a lot of money. It can buy enough chickens and cattle to provide milk and eggs for the villagers to eat each day.
But eight years ago, the locals of Lwala traded in their livestock for a plane ticket to Dartmouth College, to give 18-year-old Milton Ochieng’ something priceless - the chance for a better future. As he said goodbye to his friends and family, Ochieng’ promised to repay them somehow, one day.
Now, his chance has finally arrived. Ochieng’ graduated from Dartmouth with the help of his proud community, and went on to study medicine at Vanderbuilt University. He’s about to begin his residency as a doctor in the United States - but first, he and his younger brother Fred, who is also studying medicine, returned to Lwala to establish a medical clinic to help the people who had done so much to help them.
Together, the two Kenyan brothers set out to raise funds to build a clinic in their village, soliciting donations from individuals and the nonprofit group, Blood:Water Mission, founded by Christian rock band Jars of Clay. By April 2007, the two young men had raised the $150,000 they needed to set up the clinic in Lwala.
Today, the clinic is staffed by two physicians’ assistants and three nurses, with help from the Ochieng’ brothers whenever they come home. The clinic provides free aid to more than 100 people each day, who travel from Lwala and many surrounding areas. The clinic helps deliver babies, provides medicine and vaccinations, and treats thousands of patients who are sick with AIDS, which killed both of the Ochieng’ brothers’ parents.
Though the clinic is Milton Ochieng’s gift to his villagers in return for that plane ticket long ago, he still feels as if he is receiving something precious from his generous act. “There’s such a sense of love and people feeling they’ve gained so much from the health center,” he told the Associated Press. “It keeps me going. ... It makes you realize how great it is to be a doctor, how great it is to be serving humanity.”