Repairs carried out on storm-damaged Katine health centre

When a storm struck Katine's Catholic church-run health centre and ripped off its roof in March last year, both health workers and patients feared the worst. Health workers worried about losing their jobs and a source of income, while patients were concerned about losing vital services that could put their lives at risk. At the time, the cost of the damage was estimated to be more than UShs 20m (around $10,000), which neither the Catholic mission or patients could afford. However, 10 months later, damage to the centre has been repaired and staff and patients are enjoying the facilities once again. As well as iron sheets for the roof, new timber has been fitted and a fresh coat of paint has given the unit a new look. Last year, heavy rain not only destroyed the roof, but also drugs and the health centre's only microscope. It also damaged the nearby grass thatched homes of the health workers. The privately run health centre II is important to the local community. Tiriri health centre, which suffers from a chronic shortage of drugs, is 3km away. The disaster did not stop patients demanding services from the centre, even if it meant them receiving treatment under a mango tree, says Mary Amongin, who is in charge of the unit. It was after witnessing the commitment of the community and staff, said Yventine Ekwaru, the vice-chairman of the centre's management committee, that the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) stepped in to offer help. At the time of the storm, Amref, which is implementing the Katine development project in the sub-county, funded by the Guardian and Barclays, said it could not help meet the repair costs because it did not work with private institutions. However, the NGO supplied iron sheets for the roof. It had also provided timber, but confusion between the size requested by the health centre committee and what a district engineer who inspected the property recommended resulted in the wrong sort of timber being supplied by Amref. "We were happy that Amref responded to our request. Unfortunately, the timber they supplied was rejected by the committee and the community because it was of very poor quality. Some of it had even started rotting before we put up the iron sheets. So the only support we can safely say that Amref gave us are the iron sheets. The rest of the things like labour and timber were met by us," said Ekwaru. Amref's project manager, Oscar Okech, said the NGO was following recommendations in the district engineers' inspection report. The rest of the work was carried out by the community. Ekwaru said the committee wants to expand the centre to include a children's ward and maternity ward to meet the growing needs of the community. Amongin said: "As a health centre II we are not supposed to admit patients, but for unavoidable circumstances. However, the number of patients is overwhelming us. Even if we refer them to Tiriri health centre , they do not want to go. They prefer receiving treatment [from us] because of the way we handle them. So they have been pressuring us to construct a ward." She added: "Last financial year, the unit admitted 600 patients even with inadequate facilities." Ekwaru is now appealing to Amref and other development partners to help support their work - particularly in regards to providing them with construction materials. He says the materials the community members collected have all been used.