Elizabeth Muiru, suffering from advanced breast cancer
By Harrison Maina, Ajabu Africa News, posted September 1, 2010
BOSTON, Mass._The widespread phenomena of cancer among healthy individuals getting diagnosed with various types of cancers have one particularly devastating effect especially if your loved one lives in Africa- the accompanying financial strain on the affected families.
In Kenya, where only the very rich usually have knowledge and economic ability to purchase health insurance coverage, most families who get visited by the incurable disease end up in a downward spiral , both financially and emotionally, as they battle the disease with the ever expensive chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
“I was shocked to learn that it takes about Kenya Shillings 209, 000 ($2,573) for one course of chemotherapy treatment at reputable hospitals in Kenya, like the MP Shah or the Aga Khan ”, said Veronica Kahacho, who found the hard truth when she started sending money back home to pay hospital bills for her mother who has an advanced form of breast cancer.
Doctors have prescribed 8 courses of the treatment of Kahacho’s mother, which means she needs Ksh 1,672,000 ($20,591) just for the chemo doses.
“There are also other oncology fees and maintenance drugs that have added up another Ksh. 200,000”, adds Veronica Kahacho of Abington, Mass., who is the eldest daughter to her mother.
Kahacho’s mother, Elizabeth Muiru, 59, was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer in late may 2010 after much suffering with pain.
When doctors at the MP Shah hospital evaluated her, the only option that the oncologist gave her was chemo treatment since disease was already at an advanced stage.
Veronica Kahacho and her mother, Elizabeth Muiru, during
a
visit
to Kenya in 2008
However, being a woman of faith, Muiru and her two daughters are trusting healing from God even as doctors do their best.
He younger daughter, Susan Kahacho, lives in Gatundu where she is married and works at the Teaches Service commission. The mother lives in the Gitambaya area of Ruiru area, about 30 miles north of Nairobi Kenya, with a house help the daughters have employed to assist her.
Like most other Kenyans in the USA, the elder Kahacho is living from paycheck to paycheck as a nurse at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, making it difficult for her to keep up with the continued stream of urgent financial demands from home.
Ironically, the hospital that Kahacho works at speciallizes in cancer treatment, but there is nothing much she could do to get her mother receive treatment there due to Visa problems.
A single mother, Elizabeth Muiru worked all her life and retired as a civil servant at the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in Nairobi, Kenya.
According to her daughter, her mother has been a well respected christian lay leader in Kenya , especially in the area of intercessory prayers. “For many years she has ran a women’s empowerment ministry out of her house, empowering women by teaching them the power of prayer and how it can change lives”, Kahacho told AjabuAfrica.com.
"She is also very well known for her generosity, and has educated a couple of the neighbor’s children, who could not afford school fees", added the elder daughter.
But as Kahacho’s mother faces the biggest battle of her life, the financial strain and uncertainty of where to live is adding to the misery of this single mother of two.
She has been hospitalized at the MP Shah hospital for three weeks, costing the family over KSH 200, 000 in hospital bills only. To make matters worse, the family has received notice from the Kenyan government that their house may be demolished as it lies too close to the areas of land allocated for the ambitious Northern bypass road , a road project in Kenya is intended to connect the capital city Nairobi, to the Rift Valley city of Nakuru, in a planned bid to ease congestion on the city roads.
However, with the signing of the new Kenyan constitution, the intended demolition of this hapless family’s house may not take place, as the government put a hold on the demolitions of some of the settlements.
All these problems that have visited Kahacho’s mother, that is the pain of breast cancer treatment and the financial hardship it brings , coupled with the uncertainty of where to live after spending your entire life in one family place you call a home broke her heart, and decided to turn to her community and friends for help.
Since Kahacho’s younger sister works as a clerk with the TSC where the pay is too little to make a difference, the biggest financial burden has fallen on her only sister who is in America.
Working as a nurse in the Boston area, Kahacho's income is equally insufficient to cater for all the expenses for her mother's treatment, as she juggles between her bills in the USA, yet none of the current needs could be put on hold.
As such, her family, in conjunction with members of the Rapture Harvest Mission International church in Wakefield Mass. (RHMI), has organized a fund raising ceremony to try and raise some money to help the family pay for her mother’s treatment.
“As Kenyans in the Diaspora, we need to wake up to the fact that our families back home totally depends on us financially. That is why even money remittances from the Diaspora have now become the leading foreign exchange earner for Kenya”, said Bishop Joshua Wambua, Kahacho's pastor at the RHMI church.. “For now let us come together and support this family that has done all they could do to deal with an ailing mother but now need help from the community”, added the man of God.
The fund raising has been scheduled to take place on Sunday, September 19th, 2010 at the RHMI church located at 33 West Water St in Wakefield, MA , starting at 1pm.
Donations can also be deposited at; Veronica Kahacho Bank of America Acc# 004617432368 Routing # 011000138- for direct deposits and transfers Routing # 026009593- for wires
For more information contact
Veronica Kahacho : 781-510-9441
Jack Kogera: 1-717-608-2406
Jamleck Kariuki (Kiki): 1-508-333-7394
