Mutumo's Children by Rudy Miller

For the past four years Kate and I have been drawn to Mutomo, Kenya. We are not certain why. It’s remote; 5 ½ hours from Nairobi, hot, arid and challenging to our U.S. comfort zone…..sporadic  electricity and no hot water! Yet we continue to return.

In the work of fighting HIV/AIDS Mutomo Hospital is famous. It has one of the highest percentages of children inflicted with HIV in Kenya.  841 children are under treatment at Mutomo;  47% of all their patients.

We began our visit to Mutomo Mission Hospital in the Pediatrics ward. Face after face, child after child cries for help. Duncan 6 months old, 5.0 lbs, Mary 1year old, 11 lbs. Seventeen children fill the ward struggling for life in the midst of malnutrition and HIV. We sat with the children and their guardians, we touched them but there was little we could do other than listen.

The next day we visited four homes and distributed food provided by Tree of Lives. All the sites were very remote and desolate. No food was obvious at any of the sites. Some folks were planting but the last harvest was long gone. At all homes couples were missing…..husbands or wives were dead or had left. Yet, there was an abundance of children, we greeted a total of 23 children. School was not a priority for those seeking only food or water for the day.

On our last evening we shared dinner with our Mutomo hosts. Anita, Sr. Mary and Sr. Bridget. Each are professional healthcare workers who manage the hospital. As each described their journey to Mutomo they all agreed they had only planned to stay 2 to 3 year.  Yet, 5 to 15 years later they were still there, hard at work, drawn by the same hand of our Lord who also draws us back!

You can help support this great cause. Visit www.treeoflives.org to learn more and click here to donate now.