Korr Dispensary
Korr is a village in the Kaisut Desert, in northern Kenya. It is part of Marsabit County which borders Ethiopia and Moyale. The population of Korr, the Rendille and Samburu, is (semi) nomadic pastoralists. The climate conditions are harsh. It is a dry area. Rainfall is between 200 mm and 1,000 mm per year.
For close to 30 years, the Salesian of Don Bosco built in Korr a dispensary run by Nirmala Sisters from India. The centre provides several health services to the local communities like treatment of common diseases and immunization. In cooperation with World Vision a nutrition program is implemented. One of the activities is supplementary feeding of severely malnourished children.
Recently, the Salesians of Don Bosco constructed a brand new dispensary was in Korr and the old dispensary was renovated. This tremendously improved the dispensary capacity in health care delivery. The new dispensary has in-patient services, which has increased the number of people accessing the services of the dispensary. This number has increased from 15 patients per day to 35 patients per day. The new dispensary also has a well-equipped laboratory and chemist.
The health services rendered at the dispensary and the maternity units are free and include antenatal care, deliveries and postnatal care and well mother and baby clinics. The beneficiaries are the people from Korr, who are the marginalized Rendille and Samburu people with special emphasis on children, older people and pregnant women as well as those from other parts of the county. The prevalent diseases are malaria, intestinal worms, respiratory tract diseases and diarrhea. As for sanitation, a large proportion of population (more than 70%) have no access to pit latrines. under-nutrition of children and pregnant mother is also responsible for the death of both mother and child. Currently the dispensary serves an average of 1000 patients per month.
The ratio of Doctor vis-à-vis the population is 1 to 63,825. It is very difficult to secure health personnel from the Government because of the situation of Korr. The Sister in charge of the dispensary is overwhelmed. There is a need for nurses and lab technicians. The dispensary sometimes gets some interns who have just completed their studies. They stay for a very short time and leave. Apart from the harshness of Korr as a location, which does not encourage health personnel to stay in Korr, there is no proper housing for its medical personnel. The existing structure does not offer any comfort or security to its users. There therefore a need to build such a structure, not only for local medical personnel, but also for possible volunteers.