Facilitated and mobilized by Rotarians for Fighting AIDS, Inc. as an initial project of the HIV Free Generation Partnership, theRotary Clubs of Marietta Metro, Dunwoody, Smyrna, York and Lebanon, PA, and Nairobi North joined Districts 6900 and 7390, partnered The Rotary Foundation, HopeWorldwide, Heart of Africa, PEPFAR, and The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation,created and funded one of the largest international teams of medical, dental and optical professionals ever assembled.

The Team's purpose was simply to help some of Africa's poorest children.

This Medical Mission to Nairobi, Kenya, joined 72 volunteers (medical and non-medical) from 11 countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, India, Japan, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, United Kingdom and the United States) for ten days of service to children.    Approximately two-thirds of the volunteers were Rotarians - representing the largest Rotary International Medical Mission ever conducted.  Arriving in Kenya on September 20th and 21st, Rotary's international team went to work in three of the world's famous and infamous slums - Mukuru, Mathare and Korogocho.  The visiting Rotarians were joined by more than 150 Kenyan Rotarians, Rotaract members and Kenyan medical student volunteers.

The targeted work areas were the same ones shown around the world as particularly violent during the December, 2007, riots that occurred following the disputed Presidential election.  These "casual villages" are home to approximately 60% of Nairobi's population (1.8 million people) and represent places where personal income averages less than $1 per day and preventative health care is virtually non-existent.  The children, as usual, are the environment's most vulnerable victims.

Volunteers went on this mission believing that we could do something, even something small, to make a difference in the lives of a few of these children.  At the same time, we made great new friends with others who believed the same thing.  Most rewarding of all, we really helped so many people.  Over an eight working day period, the team saw more than 10,000 children in three clinics.  Most of the time, we dispensed vitamins, antibiotics, cough syrup and de-worming medication.  We checked eyes and brought improved vision.  We conducted dental hygiene classes and introduced toothpaste while the professionals took on bigger and more painful problems.  In other cases, we rubbed anti-fungal cream on skin and hair.  Once in a while, we scared babies by being the first, and only, blond, white people they ever saw.

We touched lives with a smile and only half an apple or a photograph.  And the entire team agreed this was the most rewarding, worthwhile thing we've ever done with Rotary.

At other, darker times, each of us stepped back for a moment to cry over a 16 year old mother who waited all day for a Doctor to see her desperately sick, paralyzed infant, to mourn a 4 year old rape victim and the toddler who fell into a fire.  During our time in Korogocho, life became tragically short for the teenaged boy who was stabbed by his fellow cell phone thief.  He died in the middle of the dusty, pot-holed road with a cell phone in each hand.  The poverty, the dust, the garbage, the stagnant water with lack of basic sanitation and the overwhelming smells stayed on all of us...even after we returned to our lodging and a much cleaner environment.

Importantly, team members learned that the work we only started will continue.  A permanent medical clinic will be housed the Mukuru site by an anonymous professional architect who, hearing about Rotary's Mission, visited our location and personally saw the work being accomplished.  He committed to design and construct a facility that will be permanently staffed through grants from another foundation.

This happens when Rotarians join RFFA and other concerned partners and decide to do something for orphans and vulnerable children.  The results