Ruben Clinic

PERSONAL DETAILS

Name	Brendan Kennedy

ELECTIVE DETAILS

Country	Kenya	City	Nairobi
Setting	Urban, developing
Local languages spoken	Swahili, English
Dates of elective	December 2007 – February 2008
Year level during elective	5	Expected level of knowledge	Some

DETAILS OF INSTITUTION

Name	Ruben Clinic	Population served	?thousands
Size	Nil beds. 10 staff.
Departments/specialties available	General practice, paediatrics, emergency, infectious diseases, tuberculosis clinic, HIV clinic/counselling, home visits in slum.
Further description	Clinic provides primary health care to Ruben slum.
Student responsibilities	Initial consults (with some supervision), home visits.
Teaching availability	One-on-one
Elective contact	My sister (ring me, but as I say, there is no doctor there yet).
Application process	I asked.
Donations brought/grants	MIGA grant – they need everything.

TRAVEL, ACCOMMODATION, FOOD, LEISURE AND EXPECTED COSTS

Accommodation options	I stayed with Christian brothers who owned the clinic.	About AUD$50/week
Accommodation details
Travel to location (including necessary documentation)	Flights, visas	AUD$3000, depending on flights
Transport within location	Walked, buses, lift with brothers.	About AUD$20/month
Food allowances
Social activities	Safaris… pretty much whatever.
Recommended vaccinations	Yellow fever, typhoid, tetanus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, Mantoux test +/- BCG, malaria tablets.	AUD$300-400

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

The good	Great exposure, awesome staff and locals. Seeing things you’ll never see in Australia.
The bad	Political violence (at the time – now it’s okay).
Further descriptions, comments or advice	Home visits, working with local staff. Becomes hard when you can’t do things because of a lack of resources. There is no doctor there full-time. I went with my sister as my supervisor. An elective to Ruben may become available in 2-3 years, but not currently.
For more information	Ask me. There is also a documentary that ABC/SBS may/may not show (made in 2008, starring my sister).