Kenya

In December 2010, Dr. Charles Ochieng a family planning physician working for Marie Stopes in Kisumu, Kenya, traveled from Kenya to Florida at his own expense to train with NSVI Development Director Doug Stein. It was his first trip outside East Africa. Read about his trip to Florida and his fascinating personal history HERE. One of very few Kenyan men who has undergone vasectomy, Dr. Ochieng has become (1) a very strong advocate of family planning in general and especially no-needle no-scalpel vasectomy and (2) an outstanding vasectomist, regularly providing vasectomy services in Nairobi, services easy to access through his website HERE.

Kenya’s human population is increasing at an alarming rate. Kenya’s land area is smaller than that of Texas (our second most populous state, with ~25 million), but Kenya’s present population is about 40 million (ref) and the rate of increase is about 2.5% (ref), which means that every year, Kenya’s human population increases by about 1 million!

Since 1963, Kenya’s forest cover has decreased from 10% to 1.7% (ref), and Kenya continues to lose about 30,000 acres of forest every year (ref).

Of the roughly 25,000 lions (an index species) remaining in the wild, 2000 live in Kenya, and Kenya is losing 100 lions per year (ref), many of the deaths due to poisoning by herders and farmers (ref).

Family planning advocates such as Marie Stopes International have been promoting and providing traditional family planning methods in Kenya for decades. They obviously haven’t been enough. Vasectomy has never been embraced by Kenyan men. Before NSVI, the no-needle technique had never been introduced and the no-scalpel technique only sparingly promoted by operators without much practice.

Given NSVI’s experience and success in the Philippines and Haiti, Kenya seemed like an excellent third challenge. Dr. Ochieng was willing to come to the Philippines in February 2012 to learn how to conduct a successful vasectomy mission. Confident in his ability to direct a mission in his home country, he invited NSVI to Kenya. How could we refuse?

Here is the First NSVI Mission to Kenya: May 2012.

And here is the Second Mission to Kenya Nov 2012.

Photo summaries of NSVI’s Missions to Kenya are under “Kenya” in the menu to the right.