Help Prof. Joy Obando Medical Bill after prolonged ICU stay

Hello friends, colleagues, and well-wishers.

I am Henry N. N. Bulley (at BMCC, City Univ. of New York, USA) and writing on behalf of Prof Joy Joan Apiyo Obando, and her family at home and Kenyatta University. I have known Prof. Joy since 2016 and she is an Assoc Prof of Geography at Kenyatta University

Prof. Joy, as she is affectionately referred to by friends and family, is currently hanging on to dear life in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of MP Shah Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. She was admitted to MP Shah on 29th May 2024 after suffering complications from a long battle with cancer treatments and she was taken to the ICU a day later where she remains on “support”.

So far, it is uncertain when Prof. Joy will get out of ICU and let alone the MP Shah Hospital, but the current trajectory of her medical cost is overwhelming, reaching three (3) million Kenyan Shillings (about 23,000 USD) as of June 10, 2024. Prof. Joy’s cancer journey has been extremely expensive and draining to Joy Obando and her family. Your kind donation will help Prof. Joy’s family cover the current and projected medical costs as well as her recovery process. She braved over cancer once and we hope that with your financial support, she will come out of the ICU and go on to recover.

Odyssey with Cancer

Prof. Joy was initially diagnosed with cancer in October 2017, and she immediately sought treatment in India the following month until April 2018 when she returned after treatment. She regularly travelled to India for review until the cancer went into remission. During the COVID-19 pandemic and following travel restrictions, she could not travel for her regular check-up but continued with local follow-up.

In 2021, the cancer recurred, and her Kenyan physician referred her to MP Shah Hospital, Nairobi, for further management and chemotherapy treatment. She has been responding well to treatment until March 2024, when she was hospitalized but was discharged after a few days to continue with medication at home. Things changed on May 29 when Prof. Joy was readmitted to MP Shah Hospital.

A Scholar, Mentor and Friend

Prof. Joy Obando has 34 years of university education experience, and she has immensely contributed to the field of geography, resource management and sustainable development; she is one of the key women leaders in science in the region. Prof. Joy steered a number of projects covering Gendered Dimensions of Water Security Risk under the Centre for Humanitarian Change, REACH Accelerated program; Building Research Capacity for Sustainable Water and Food security in Sub-Saharan Africa (BRECcIA) through Global Research Challenges Fund (GCRF); Integrated Watershed Management for Development of sub-catchment management plans aimed at enhancing sustainable water resource management for food security supported by German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) among others. Through the Capacity Building for Integrated Watershed Management, she was among the team that developed the curriculum for the Masters (MSc) in Integrated Watershed Management. Prof. Joy has mentored many undergraduate and graduate students some of home have taken up faculty positions within and outside Kenya, as well as various resource management and policy positions in Kenya.

Most recently Prof. Joy steered the project on Building Gender Responsive Climate Resilient Communities in South Sudan’s Jonglei State under Supporting Pastoralism and Agriculture in Recurrent and Protracted Crises (SPARC), funded by IDRC and FDCO and managed by Cowater International. She is a member of the steering Committee of the International Geographical Union’s (IGU) Geomorphology and Society Commission; and also, a member of the International Advisory Board of Water Resources Research Center (WARREC) and of the CRC-TR 228 Future Rural Africa project.

Prof. Joy was also instrumental in the Africa Region Chapter’s bid to host the 11th World Congress of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE) in Nairobi from 10th to 15th, July 2023. This was the first time that the World Congress had been held in the Global South, and especially in Africa. The IALE 2023 Congress was successfully organized under Prof. Joy leadership as Chair of the Local Organizing Committee; she braved the cancer treatments to be present during the entire conference and for this we are forever grateful. It was remarkable to see the number of early career and young scholars from various Africans countries participate in IALE 2023 Congress. This is personal to me as I have worked over the last couple of decades to bring integration of Landscape Perspectives with Geospatial Science & Technology into Sustainable Resource Management across African Countries.

Call for Support!

Again, we don’t know when Prof. Joy would be released from the MP Shah Hospital, and yet her medical bills are increasing at astonishing rate, reaching three (3) million Kenyan Shillings (about 23,000 USD) as of June 10, 2024. This is a massive burden for Prof. Joy’s family to bear alone. So, your kind donation will help Prof. Joy’s family cover the current and projected medical cost as well as her recovery process. We are hopeful that with your support, Prof. Joy will come out of the ICU and go on to recover. Please note that any level of donation is significant to this cause, even if it's just by sharing Prof. Joy’s story with your contacts and social media links.

Personal Connection

I met Professor Joy on my first CADFP (Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program) visit to Uganda in 2016 and during the 11th AARSE International Conference .

After observing Prof. Joy's "motherly" shepherding of her students in between sessions, I approached her to discuss why I was in Uganda. Prof Joy immediately agreed to join forces in integrating Landscape Perspectives with Geospatial Science & Tech for sustainable development in Africa, and she joined the Africa Chapter of IALE.

Since then, she has been a diligent partner and last year, she chaired the first ever IALE World Congress in the Global South. Despite her health issues, Prof. Joy showed up every day during the entire conference in July last year. It was only after the conference that she mentioned her Chemotherapy sessions for cancer treatments.

My last chat with Prof. Joy was about 3 days before she was admitted to ICU on May 29 and that was the only time that she asked to do a zoom chat without video. I didn't realize she was in failing health at the time, and I hope that with your support Prof. Joy will pull through.

With kind gratitude for taking a moment to read, donate and/or share Prof. Joy Obando’s Medical Appeal. ASANTE SANA (THANK YOU VERY MUCH)