Urgent Appeal: Food,Medicine, and Water for Samburu Villages

www.samburumission.pt

Hello,

We are Catarina and Andre, dentists, and together with a team of five people and the full support of Egas Moniz School of Health and Science—the largest health university in Portugal—we are embarking on a mission to Samburu, Kenya, to help the silent humanitarian crisis undergoing in this forgotten region. The mission will focus on general and oral health with a strong focus on humanitarian aid.

The entire project coordination, the oral health project and part of the medical supplies are covered by the generous donation of https://www.egasmoniz.com.pt/cuidar

How Your Donation Helps in Samburu:

$1 provides 3 days of food for one person.

$3 can feed a person for a week.

$10 provides clean water and food for three people for a week.

$30 can sustain a family with food and water for a week.

$100 can support over 30 people with food and water for a week.

Beyond treating and educating the oral health of the population of Samburu and the slums of Nairobi, we discovered a dire situation: a fragile and understocked medical dispensary in Samburu County. This beacon of hope, built six years ago and serving 25,000 people, is unable to function due to extreme drought and lack of funds.

The situation is so severe that the basic needs of human life— water and food - are unmet. With extreme and chronic hunger and dehydration comes scurvy, vitamin deficiencies, skin and dental issues, skeletal conditions, failure to thrive, cholera, dysentery, malaria, diminished immune response, and cardiovascular impacts.

The most critical issue is the complete lack of water around this dispensary, forcing the population to travel 30 kilometers each way to get water.

Our mission of oral health promotion has expanded to include building a well that will provide water and life to this community, preventing them from having to make life-or-death decisions based on age and ability to survive.

Your donation will directly impact the lives of thousands of people. Every dollar counts, and together, we can make a difference. Please donate and share this campaign with your network.

Thank you for your support!

Please join us in restoring life to this community. Your help can save 25,000 lives, allowing five communities around the medical dispensary to survive and thrive with dignity.

You can follow our progress at https://www.samburumission.pt and on our social media accounts.

To be clear here are the objetives to be achieved according to the needs of the population :

Food

Each Village - food for a week - 3000 people

90 kg maize: 31 USD x 100 pc -3100 USD

90 kg rice: 60 USD x 20 pc - 1200 USD

90 kg dry beans: 110 USD x 20 pc - 2200 USD

Well

1. Hydrogeological report by a water engineer - $1500

2. ⁠permit ( 5 days)- $600

3. ⁠drilling rig - $12,000-22,000 Depends on depth but that’s been the average

4. ⁠pump and solar power :$2500

Medical Supplies

Hospital Bed - 300 USD each

Below is part of our official letter. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any other ideas to help. We, along with Egas Moniz School of Health and Science, are eager to have you on board.

In 2024, the first International Humanitarian Mission of the Egas Moniz School of Health & Science will take place in Kenya, coordinated by me, André Mariz Almeida, a university professor, researcher, and dentist in Portugal, and Dr. Catarina Martinho, a dentist specialized in periodontology. Both of us have extensive backgrounds in humanitarian work.

This mission, running from July 29 to August 20, aims to provide humanitarian support and basic life support, as well as primary oral health care for a population of around 3,000 people—including adults and children—in the regions of Samburu and Nairobi. We will be collaborating with three non-governmental organizations: Sabache Project, Wongan Community Organization, and ADDHU, which is responsible for the Wanalea Children's Home in Ongata Rongai, Nairobi.

The Samburu Mission will be divided into two phases:

Phase 1: Samburu region, August 1-15

Phase 2: Nairobi, August 15-20

This fundraising effort focuses on the Samburu region, located in northern Kenya, one of the worst affected by the extreme drought since 2011—the worst in 60 years—followed by intense rains since October 2023, causing devastating floods in an already fragile region.

In Samburu, 70% of the population lives below the poverty line (source: Kenya National Bureau of Statistics), and 40% have no access to drinking water or primary health care (source: World Health Organization).

Entire villages have been forced to migrate in search of food, and thousands have died due to lack of basic living conditions. Local NGOs report frequent instances where both organizations and families must choose between feeding children or the elderly. The prolonged drought has decimated 75% of livestock in the villages, further destabilizing the subsistence conditions of this population.

In the first phase of the mission in Samburu, we will work in five villages around the local medical dispensary, situated in the center of Samburu County.

Our specific objectives are:

Install a well next to the medical dispensary and water tanks in each of the five villages.

Distribute basic humanitarian aid, including survival rations, rice, and flour.

Provide basic health and oral health care, and promote health literacy among village leaders.

Transform the medical dispensary in central Samburu into a hub of health, life, and hope by equipping it with medical equipment, consumables, and medicines.

To successfully accomplish this mission and make a decisive contribution to the lives of those we aim to help, we need to collect funds to support the drilling of the well—a crucial investment in the survival of this population.

Thank you for your support.

Warm regards,

Catarina and Andre