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Kingston Ontario’s history includes a cholera epidemic that, between 1932 and 1934, killed ten percent of the city’s population. Kingston residents are all familiar with the downtown McBurney Park ( known locally as Skeleton Park}, now home to an annual summer arts festival, where many of the victims of this epidemic were buried 180 years ago. Kingston’s popular home-town band, The Tragically Hip, even have a song that references the outbreak. The Hip Museum website has a great summary of the cholera epidemic that basically closed down all the stores in town with the exception of lumber outlets to make coffins.

Cholera was then, and remains now, a serious consequence of inadequate sanitation and clean water. It was not until John Snow traced an outbreak in London to a water pump on Broad Street that we understood that the disease was spread through water exposed to fecal contamination from other infected people.

In Canada today, 99 percent of the population has access to improved sanitation and clean water. Cholera is a disease of the past. But for communities in developing world countries, including those in East Africa, where, by comparison, only 60 percent of people have access to improved sanitation, it remains a serious threat.

Just last week I received an email from Dr. Karen Yeates, a Kingston nephrologist who is currently with her family in Tanzania. She writes:
“I just managed a cholera epidemic over Christmas at the little hospital I am doing some part time consulting at. I never thought I would see it in my lifetime as a physician…..its incredible that we have the ability to do everything we can in this world with technology and medicine but, the poor and disadvantaged in sub-Saharan Africa struggle with diseases of more than a century ago. We have had over 30 cases but no deaths thankfully. We traced it to lack of toilets and clean water in the three communities where it came from. They had stopped boiling water due to lack of ability to afford wood for their fires…its a choice of make food or boiling water but not enough wood for both. Inflation is high here right now due to the strong US dollar and everything has become more expensive for families here.
I was thinking about CAN-ASSIST and how many toilets you have built over the years….we can’t forget about these simple things…..:).

Keep doing what you all do so well. “

The CanAssist African Relief Trust continues to work to improve water and sanitation for schools and communities in East Africa. This week we are starting a latrine project at a school on Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria. In 2015 we installed clean water supply and toilets in ten different schools, clinics or lakeside villages.

There is little specific treatment for Cholera other than aggressive fluid and electrolyte replacement. Prevention through sanitation, protection of water supplies and hand-washing remains the key. This YouTube video is in Swahili and aimed at instructing African people about the importance of these prevention measures. It is simply presented and without knowing a word of the language it is easy to understand the message.

I first started to feel like I was back home in Africa when I got on the Kenya Airways plane in London and was greeted by polished, professional, friendly flight attendants, all dressed in bright red blazers. They are just so welcoming and gentle and I knew I was in good hands.

The new Kenya Airways 787 Dreamliner.

The flight was a special one, unbeknownst to me. When I arrived at the departure gate there was cake and champagne to celebrate the inaugural flight of a brand new Boeing 787 Dreamliner added to the Kenya Airways fleet. There were even two lions in the hold, being transported back to Africa from a circus in Germany. (You can read about it here – http://travel.aol.co.uk/2015/01/21/two-lions-rescued-cruel-circus-germany-moved-south-africa-born-free/)

After 35 hours of travel, like the lions, I needed some rescuing so I was excited and pleased to be met at the Kisumu Airport by Mary Etuku, the manager of the ICIPE Guest House where I will stay for three weeks.

After a brief stop to get my mobile phone working properly, we drove to Mbita, about 2 1/2 hours from Kisumu.

I had come to Kenya to visit but also to check on some of the projects we have been doing in the last year and realized as we bumped along that we would pass one of our school projects near Kendu Bay. Our driver, Kennedy , kept his eyes peeled and found the sign for Kamser Primary School so we did a U-turn and headed back , unannounced.

Desks at the Kamser Elementary school provide in 2014 by CanAssist.

The students were away from the school on their lunch break but three teachers sat under a tree marking notebooks. They took me into the classrooms to show me the desks that CanAssist had funded last year. This was a bit of a win-win since the desks, rudimentary but functional, we’re all made by local carpenters, thereby providing some modest local employment as well as providing the desks for the students. CanAssist had also provided a rainwater catchment tank. The teachers told me that after a good rain, the tank fills and can supply drinking water for the 500 pupils at the school for several weeks. Prior to getting the desks, the students, usually 60-80 per classroom, were sitting on the floor to learn.

I was delighted to start my 2015 Africa trip this way. My Jet lag dissolved. I was pleased to see how these teachers were appreciative of our support and their report of how this contribution to the school had made a difference to the well-being of the students.

After a good rain, this tank will be full and provide clean drinking water at the Kamser school for several weeks.

I may have brought them something else – another blessing. About 10 last night there was a 2 hour torrential thunderstorm that dumped much-needed water on the community. There has been no rain for weeks. I smiled as I lay in bed, my screened patio door open, and listened to the rain pour down, knowing that around this community there were water tanks filling up.