When Kenyan brothers, Milton and Fred, lost their parents to HIV, they resolved to fulfill their father’s dream of bringing health to their community. They worked with their home community and thousands of supporters in the U.S. to launch Lwala Community Alliance. As Milton says “Our status as two of Africa’s 1.3 million HIV orphans galvanized us. We realized we couldn’t wait until it was convenient. Too many children were losing their parents.”
“While visiting the hospital, I helped deliver a baby girl who was in respiratory distress shortly after birth. The mother looked me and asked, ‘Is she going to live, or should I call my husband and the rest of the family and tell them to prepare for a funeral?’ I fought back tears, thinking of my own two girls. This mother deserved to bring back a bundle of joy to her family. We worked feverishly to resuscitate this baby, suctioning her little nostrils and giving her supplemental oxygen. As the life-giving oxygen flew into her precious lungs, her heart rate increased. A decade ago, she would have perished – but because she is now part of our over 97% of babies being delivered under the care of a skilled attendant, she lived.”
– Milton Ochieng’, Co-Founder of Lwala Community Alliance
