"People are living every day to survive but they are really happy.”

When four friends from Ashbourne travelled to Kenya and The Light of Maasai charity, based in Rombo, just north of Kilimanjaro nothing could have prepared the friends for the poverty and struggles that face the locals everyday. One challenge was the lack of antigen and PCR testing equipment and it was an Ashbourne company that helped overcome it

A GROUP of Ashbourne friends who embarked on a volunteering trip to Kenya to help restore local schools in a remote part of the country says the experience was “life changing.”

Earlier this month John Dollard flew to Kenya with Ailish Moriarty, Emma Scott and Alicia Woods to volunteer with The Light of Maasai charity, based in Rombo, just north of Kilimanjaro.

The Ashbourne man says that nothing could have prepared the friends for the poverty and struggle that faces the locals everyday but was struck by how happy people were despite having so little. He said:

“I was amazed at the start because what you and I would feel almost heartbroken for being that often people’s only concern is where their next meal is coming from, they are surprisingly content.

“The kids are just as innocent and happy as they would be at home despite going out with empty stomachs and a lot of them would have lost parents to different diseases.”

John and co spent their time in Rombo assisting local schools with a clean-up project so the children could return to adequate education facilities after their midterm break.

“We were amazed at what they learn at certain ages, it’s very similar to what kids learn at home but they learn it here with just one meal for the day and they might have had to walk 10km to get to the school.

“There are schools everywhere, they have had awful times in the past keeping girls in education especially as it’s a Maasai tribe area and girls are taken out of school as early as 12 and 13 but there is huge work going into changing that.

“It’s interesting to see the balance because they want to preserve as much of the culture as possible but cut out marrying off girls at a young age and female genital mutilation which is still prevalent and will take years of education to really stamp out.”

The Ashbourne man says it was a “shock to the system” when they first arrived in the destitute area. He added:

“We flew into Nairobi, and we immediately started on the six-hour drive down to Rombo. We were clearly in a big city at the start but as we drove further and further the houses got smaller and turned into what you and I would consider as shacks, there are still people living in mud and stick huts but it was a just a huge shock coming from the big city all the way down to just pure extremely rural poverty areas.”

Climate change is something that is evident in everyday life in Kenya and not just a political agenda according to the volunteer who said: “They have had a terrible drought here over the past few years and you can see the rib cages of goats and cows because there is nothing for them to graze on.

“It’s strange coming from Ireland and hoping for no rain and here everyone is literally praying for rain.

“For us in Ireland I feel like climate change is this far away thing but here it is very real and you can see the effects, it is so blatant.

“There was a school in an extremely rural area, and we were told if it had rained when we were there, we were to immediately come back because you have to cross a riverbed that has had two bridges both of which had collapsed and if it rained and the river started flowing, we would get cut off from civilisation pretty much.

“It was pure in the wild, there were giraffes and zebras walking by it was very surreal.”

Despite not having much other than the basics locals use their initiative to get things they need.

“I have never seen people so resourceful, they have almost nothing, but they do so much with it, for whatever reason you can’t get footballs here and so the kids make footballs out of cloth, they get a shirt or a jumper and tie a whole load of string around it.

“They will find any way to use what they have to get what they need. People are living every day to survive but they are really happy.”

John has praised RocDoc in Ashbourne for providing the group at short notice with 60 Covid – 19 antigen tests to donate to a local hospital in Rombo.

“Rombo is a mostly rural area and being six hours away from a major hospital and laboratory means normal PCR testing isn’t possible,” said John.

“Antigen tests are also incredibly expensive in this part of the world and low vaccination rates mean the pandemic won’t be ending here anytime soon.

“I immediately reached out to a number of Covid testing companies based at the airport and RocDoc from Ashbourne came back to me straight away wondering how they could help. At extremely short notice, David Rock of RocDoc arranged for a donation of 60 Antigen tests. To buy that many here in Kenya would easily cost over €1,000.

“So, after we had settled in Elaine Bannon founder of the charity brought us to the local health clinic, Rombo Mission Health Centre, where we met with head nurse Sister Maria and handed over the donation. These tests will be a huge benefit to the clinic and local community.”