Sons Of Lwala: A Documentary of Hope

Have you reached here looking for more updates on the Lwala story – Please visit the website lwalacommunityalliance.org for the newest info on their remarkable story.

” Here, you belong to everyone” – It takes a village to raise a child, so what happens when the children return to fill the hand that raised them? The Sons of Lwala film about the medical duo of brothers who became doctors and returned to bring healthcare to their village in Kenya has to be told. Earlier in 2008, in Nashville, TN area held a benefit screening of the story of the two young doctors who returned to Lwala to build a hospital after being educated in the United States.

The Story

Milton and Fred Ochieng’ are two brothers from Kenya whose village sent them to America to become doctors. But after losing both parents to AIDS they are left with a heartbreaking task: to return home and finish the health clinic their father started before getting sick. Unable to raise enough money on their own, the brothers are joined by students, politicians, and a rock band – Jars of Clay who launch a fund raising drive among young people across the United States. ‘Sons of Lwala’ follows Milton and Fred on their incredible journey as they find a way, despite all odds, to open their village’s first hospital. Milton is currently pursuing his residency in St. Louis, MO and Fred is a third year med student at Vanderbilt in Tennessee. Both have been speaking all over the northeast lately to doctor’s conventions while Barry Simmons been showing the film in over a dozen venues, from universities to medical conferences to church gatherings.”

The Location: Lwala

The Lwala Community Alliance paints us a portrait of an African community struggling to keep afloat. – “In Lwala poverty, impassable roads during the rainy season, lack of electricity, unsafe drinking water and poor nutrition create an environment where poor health is rampant and access to care practically nonexistent. Malaria, diarrhea, skin diseases, respiratory diseases and tuberculosis are rampant. Women give birth in their dirt-floored huts, and complications in delivery often lead to death. Children suffer from malnutrition, which exacerbates the problems of malaria, diarrhea and skin diseases. But despite their severity, these problems pale in comparison to the problem of HIV/AIDS, which is the primary cause of death in Lwala and may infect as much as a third of the population.”

How To Take Action

After Fred and Milton completed the hospital, with the help of well wishers and friends, they realized that they needed to keep it open, and created the Lwala Community Alliance to continue funding the initial donation. You too can keep that fund going. It is already on your Christmas list – DONATE Here  – And just in case you are wondering what your donation will do:

So folks, you can watch the trailer here or the trailer below.

In other news,I got in touch with ‘Sons of Lwala’  director, Barry Simmons: “The film has raised nearly $250,000 (KSh 17.5 Million), which is partially being used to build a maternity wing in Lwala.In January, the production team is going back to Lwala in January to film an epilogue to the documentary, and also to show the villagers their film. We’ll also be going to look at how health in the village has changed since the clinic opened a year and a half ago.”

For those of you who have not yet purchased a copy of the DVD, it includes a little mini-documentary on how “Sons of Lwala” got made the trailer and a hilarious movie-let filmed in the village called “Omondi’s Crib.” Simmons adds that “If you’ve seen MTV’s “Cribs” then you’ll get a kick out of this.” The “Sons of Lwala” DVD is available and on sale for $19.99 at www.sonsoflwala.com. Orders made by Dec. 16 will arrive on doorsteps by the 24th!

Many thanks to Barry Simmons for the update! If you use Facebook, join the Sons of Lwala group to receive regular updates on where the film is being shown and how you can make a difference in this project.

(Image tpac.org/lwala)
Other images( sonsoflwala.org)

More Press :

Sons of Lwala names ABC News Persons of the Week (link here)

An Immigrant, A Learner :Working and Learning Afresh

 

When I look at my friends volunteer activities, I am amazed at how many are involved in teaching part time here in Philadelphia at both the regular age and adult education classes. Regular classes in the school district of Philadelphia do not cater for adult learners and certainly not those with minimal education. Working with speakers of every language represented in these areas, they work behind the scenes in a great concert of the young and the older learners, with the former teaching the latter in reverse of time tested tradition.

Who will write about these unsung heroes, both students and teachers? For the college student-teacher, life has become so much more than assignments and exams, and assumed a mature air in the company of their elders. For their attentive classes, this is a rest stop that further shows how far they are from countries like Liberia and Honduras. Often, many of these people have fled political strife, and uprooted stable families and generations of memories. For the college kids, they are only beginning the pages of their lives, and some have not yet closed the two decade chapter.

I salute this group, this crew of people learning from each other. I wonder who will really care after their work is done and they have packed up the project for the semester. I realsie that the best things in life are free. I often wondered what I could possibly do if Kenya was torn apart by civil war as many other neighbors, independence peers have done. Would I go to the United Nations High Commisioner For Refugees and plead my status to come to America. Would I get a Refugee registration card and attain rare passage to America? Would my case come up in New York or some other city. And even if I were legit and allowed to stay, would I arrive in a hotel or motel and stay over with my family or would I have to land wherever I may?

I would wonder whether my degree earned at the U.Nairobi or Kenyatta U. would get me a job even though I left my degree documents at home in flames. I would like an opportunity to prove my competence and quickly realise that the rules are different if your first language is not English and your degree is in a different language. That is where the top end of the people in the adult class for English lie. The vast majority are not very well educated and would probably never reach attainment. For them, the goal is to be able to read street signs and bills and of course, news of home.

I think of the class now, where my buddy Ms. K taught last year, and where there is such a long waiting line for the English class. As I move into next week and the next, i shall be encouraged by the hopefulness of their stories, and the passion in their eyes. And still I will be proud and rise to applaud the effort, always hoping for a result to be proud of.