MOHI brings education, better health to poorest county in Kenya

If you were to visit the village of Kargi in Marsabit, the poorest county in all of Kenya, this is what you would find: water scarcity, food insecurity and extreme poverty.

CMF team member and nurse Raelyn Nicholson, who serves as the Health Quality Assurance and Liaison Coordinator for Missions of Hope International (MOHI) in Kenya, traveled to Kargi recently and was distressed by what she saw.

“Let me tell you, Kargi is a tough place to live,” she said. “About 92 percent of these pastoralist people live on less than $2 per day. The wells contain toxic water that causes cancer. Between the rocky and infertile terrain, little rain, intense heat and fierce winds, nothing can be farmed. Most people live only on goat and camel. Before MOHI started a school there, the students had never eaten vegetables.”

Raelyn’s health assessment identified the biggest health problems in Kargi as malnutrition, respiratory infections, diarrhea, and malaria.

“The root of these problems is poverty, poor health-seeking behavior, the distance to the nearest health facility and limited health knowledge,” she said.

The community also lives in spiritual darkness, Raelyn noted.

“While talking to Kargi residents, I learned that most people worship an unknown God,” she said. “This makes the work of MOHI crucial. In the classroom, we are educating 323 young minds on Christ with the hope that their souls will be transformed and that they share the good news with their parents. We are also hoping that our new Community Health Evangelism trainer, Nicholas, will be able to use CHE’s holistic health principles to spread the gospel.

“We are praying for discernment as we plan the road ahead for MOHI Health in Kargi,” she added.