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Medical Specialties

Special Needs Clinic

tenwek-hospital-logo

Tenwek Vitals
361-bed Christian Mission Hospital
Hospital staff: 800+
Inpatients/year: 15,000+
Outpatients/year: 220,000+
Surgeries/year: 6,000
Births/year: approx. 3,000
Hospital-wide HMIS and radiology PACS system

Full-time missionary staff includes physicians in:
General and Orthopedic Surgery
Family Practice
Internal Medicine
Neurosurgery
Pediatrics
Pediatric Surgery
OB/GYN
Ophthalmology
Gastroenterology

In July of 2016, The Special Needs Clinic (SNC) at Tenwek Hospital officially began its ministry for children with disabilities. Children from birth to age 18 can now receive proper identification, assessment, and management of various disabilities at the SNC. This significantly improves access to education, their community, and a better quality of life.

This clinic was the dream of Solomon Rop, PT. His vision to create a compassionate ministry for the identification and treatment of disabled children was slowly birthed over a several years.  Through Solomon’s work in both inpatient and outpatient physical therapy at Tenwek, God began to show him the needs of the vastly underserved disabled community in Kenya. He began to receive referrals from area families. With support from missionaries, Amy and Woody Rule, Read and Suzie Vaughan, and Bill and Penny Hage, children were identified to receive therapy services as well as equipment and mobility devices.

The Special Needs Clinic is run cooperatively by the hospital’s Physiotherapy and Orthopedic Surgery Departments and operates every Friday in the hospital’s Physiotherapy Department. The SNC offers low- cost to no-cost therapy services and equipment.

Solomon begins with physical assessment, physical therapy, serial casting, assessment and measuring for assistive devices, mobility training, and/or developmental treatment. If there are medical needs, the orthopedic staff is consulted during their visit and the appropriate referrals for medical care are made. Solomon treats up to 30 children in the Friday morning clinic, and he spends Friday afternoons making home visits and delivering wheelchairs and other devices in the community through his wheelchair ministry.

The SNC has registered and treated over 300 children and over 200 wheelchairs and other specialty seating devices have been given.  Recognizing how important it is for children to gain the social and educational benefits of attending school, the SNC also works in partnership with Bomet County’s Ministries of Education and Social Services, the Africa Gospel Church, and local schools to ensure that children with disabilities can access appropriate school programs.

The Challenge of Disability in Kenya

Wheelchair-DeliveryThere are over 7,000 people living with disabilities in Bomet County alone. Having a child with a disability in Kenya is an enormous emotional, physical, and financial burden. Many children with disabilities live in isolation, having no access to basic medical care, education, or special equipment and devices. Family members are forced to stay home to care for their disabled child and are unable to work; this perpetuates the cycle of poverty.

Children served in the SNC have a variety of diagnoses including spina bifida, cerebral palsy, club foot, cleft palate, and numerous other physical and developmental disabilities. The cost of providing therapy services and much needed equipment is very often much more than families can afford, which is partly the reason so many children with disabilities are underserved. Getting therapy supplies and mobility equipment in Kenya is very challenging and costly. Most specialty seating and mobility devices are transported four hours from Nairobi.

The Faith Fund for Special Needs

FaithTo help offset the financial burden on families, The Faith Fund for Special Needs was established through Friends of Tenwek in 2016. This fund was created in the name of Faith, a young girl with spina bifida who was one of the first recipients of care through the clinic.

The Faith Fund allocates US funds and resources directly to Tenwek for the Special Needs Clinic. This fund pays for general therapy assessment and treatment, as well as developmental devices, wheelchairs, braces, prosthesis, crutches, and special seating.

Penny and Bill Hage have stepped forward as FOT Champions for the Special Needs Clinic and are engaged in fundraising for The Faith Fund.   Penny is a pediatric occupational therapist in Raleigh, NC. She and her husband, Dr. Bill Hage, an orthopedic surgeon, first volunteered at Tenwek in February 2015.

Advances in prosthetics for special needs patients

Special-Needs-Clinic-StoryThere are many children in the Tenwek referral region that are in need of prostheses due to limb loss from trauma and a host of other conditions. Thanks to efforts by USA prosthetists Tanner Claridge and Allen Dolberry, a major effort is underway to revitalize the Tenwek prosthetics lab and provide support and training for Tenwek’s prosthetic staff.

Special-NeedsThese efforts will result in making prostheses available to more children whose lives can be transformed by a new limb. This picture shows the beaming smiles and joy of four patients from the Bomet Children’s Home who all received their new limbs on the same day. Just moments later they were running through the grass for the first time!

Learn more about visiting Tenwek

    Medical Specialties
  • Diagnostic Radiology
  • Endoscopy-Gastroenterology
  • General Surgery
  • Nephrology
  • Neurosurgery
  • OB/GYN
  • Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
  • Orthopedic Surgery
  • Otolaryngogly (ENT)
  • Pediatrics
  • Physiotherapy
  • Special Needs Clinic

SNC Champions

Penny and Bill Hage
pennyhage@icloud.com

If you would like to make a financial gift to the Faith Fund for Special Needs, please use the button below to open a secure online form.

Donate with Credit Card or Bank Draft

TO SEND A GIFT BY CHECK:
Please make checks payable to Friends of Tenwek Inc. and designate “Faith Fund for Special Needs” in the memo line.
Friends of Tenwek Inc.
1132 Greenbridge Drive
Matthews, NC 28105

Donate with PayPal
Join Our Mailing List

Friends of Tenwek Inc.

1132 Greenbridge Drive
Matthews, NC 28105

info@friendsoftenwek.org
(704) 491-4297

Friends of Tenwek is accredited by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

Tenwek Hospital Mission

tenwek-hospital-logoTenwek Hospital is a Christian community committed to excellence in compassionate healthcare, spiritual ministry, and training for service to the glory of God.

Friends of Tenwek

Friends of Tenwek is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization. We are committed to advancing the mission of Tenwek Hospital by fostering communication among U.S. physicians who have served at Tenwek and by soliciting tax-deductible donations in support of Tenwek’s medical, spiritual, and educational objectives. All gifts are tax deductible up to the limits of the law. Federal Tax ID #: 45-4817136.

Designation of Gifts

Friends of Tenwek Inc. (FOT) sets meaningful and achievable fundraising goals in support of Tenwek Hospital. When the gifts received for a designated project or program exceed the identified need or fall so short that the project cannot be fulfilled, the FOT Board of Directors will use its discretion to redirect the funds to another, similar area of need at Tenwek Hospital.

© 2020 Friends of Tenwek
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