How One Woman Is Making a Difference & Changing Lives
Meet Martha Ngunjiri
Martha is a GP at LITHI Clinic (Living in Total Health Initiative). The clinic is at Kiambiu, one of the slum settlements in Nairobi, Kenya.
Having gone through chronic terminal illness herself, she knew there was still choice. She chose to approach the challenge with strength.
Today, Martha is thankful she lives a healthy and vibrant life. And there’s even more than that…
She now has a newfound gift – the gift of empathy toward those who are sick and suffering.
Her desire to work with these people, helping them change their thought patterns, build resilience and strength in overcoming sickness – and further working with the community and educating them on how to prevent illness and disease – is contagious and remarkable.
To support her cause, recently, the student community at TCI came together and donated a sum of $5,000 to Martha’s cause via the TCI Foundation. Remi Pearson started the TCI Foundation to enable TCI and its student community to take profits from the business and put them into worthwhile causes.
Here is what Martha has to say to all those who contributed (originally posted on the "Members of The Coaching Institute" group on Facebook):
Good morning wonderful Coaches! This week ends leaving me searching for the best word I could use to express my gratitude to Remi Pearson for a heart moving donation given towards my work at the Slum Clinic where I work. If I found one, I would not hesitate to use it, but this one, simple as it is, is the word. THANK YOU REMI, THANK YOU. Matt Lavars, THANK YOU. TCI THANK YOU. A donation of over 5,000 Ausi $ (400,000 Kenya Shillings): somebody who could not have afforded to access a needed Health care service , is just about to get it all the way from Melbourne. In fact not one person, many. Thanks.
This is me receiving a solar panel. The first phase of using the donation is to install solar energy to support our Vaccine fridge for immunizations. This is close to all done. By tomorrow the fridge will be in place running on this energy source.
The solar panel is now in use. We have the new fridge there that came in yesterday early morning and it was connected to the solar energy source at around 2.30pm. All a success.
That room there is part of what we worked on between January and May and is set aside for the children’s clinic. This is where the immunizations will be going on. A corridor leads to the outside through the double door and I am standing at the door with a colleague. We are then standing on the road that runs just outside the clinic.
This is the main road to the slum … what is on the background is the fence to the air-force base I mentioned to you about. Down the road from where we are standing, is a school and the children are on break, it was around 10am today. This road also is their playground, one of the best areas to play around here. Reason we would love to use some of the money to offer dewormers. We are now in contact with the District team who will organize we get the vaccines next week and this phase will be running. After that we shall start the next phase. I will keep you updated. Thanks.
On 8th October, I invited a group of 12 widows from this slum whom i have had contact with from January. We had planned for a breakfast together and i invited a lady who is a small business trainer. I engaged some of the women to prepare the breakfast. I gave them an allowance. After the training we came up with a small budget on where they needed to be supported on their business. This was the beginning of a system called table banking, common here, where groups bring money together as contirbution and members borrow from this money to support their small businesses and pay back with a small interest. This ensures that they always have some money to support each other with and this grows groups finances to enable them do bigger things they could not otherwise do alone. This group desires to get themselves out of the slum.
The breakfast and money towards their budget also came from your donation. They have given each other a grace period of one month, after which they start paying back this money with the small interest. They will be meeting every Monday to share their progress when they will all be paying a small contribution of close 3/4 of a dollar. New group members will be welcome to join with a small registration fee. Collections on every Monday will be loaned out to those who need support.
The TCI donation is still stretching out. In fact we have just spent half of what you gave us. I sincerely thank you all. A gift given with love can do amazing things. Thank you.
Continue reading Martha’s full story here
Martha, we love your work & what you're doing for the community in Nairobi, Kenya!
It’s such a privilege to support you with the important cause & do our bit to bring a share of playfulness, joy, fun and laughter, so people are able to explore their potential, and achieve their own version of excellence.
From all the team here at The Coaching Institute Foundation, THANK YOU for ALL that you do!
