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AMPATH's 'worker bees'

Capturing the longtime partnership between IU and Kenyan communities

By Indiana University

December 6^th, 2022

In 1990, Indiana University began a partnership with Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya. The partnership was formally established as the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) in 2001. More than three decades later, what started as a small team responding to the HIV and AIDS epidemic has grown into a global partnership focused on overall population health including chronic diseases, nutrition and financial stability.

This unique, cross-cultural health care collaboration is the focus of a new book by James D. Kelly, an associate professor and director of journalism in The Media School at IU Bloomington. Kelly, a photojournalist by profession, first learned about the program when he came to IU in 2007. "I realized that people in Indiana needed to know more about this," Kelly said. Over three summers, he took journalism students to Eldoret to write, photograph and record stories on AMPATH's work. In 2019, Kelly received a Fulbright Scholars award and set off to document how the program works in providing health care and training medical professionals.

The result, "From AIDS to Population Health: How an American University and a Kenyan Medical School Transformed Healthcare in East Africa", was published by IU Press in November. The book uses 100 color photographs and 70,000 words to document the AMPATH story, focusing in part on the many workers who provide community-level help. "I wanted to emphasize the role of what I call 'worker bees,' the regular folks who go out every day and perform the service that is AMPATH," Kelly said.

Anyara Papa greets Valentine Chepkorich, the daughter of Phillip (left) and Pauline Tallam (with child in arms) who live north of Turbo, Kenya. She used loans from her community savings group to pay school fees for her children. (Photo by James D. Kelly)

Richard Kubani is the Siyenga Community Group’s primary contact with AMPATH. He is a one of about 30 staffers working for Papa to help train new community savings groups and assist with operations of established groups. (Photo by James D. Kelly)

The Siyenga Community Group treasurer describes the days transactions to the members after all transactions have been completed. Each of the officers serve for just one year, but can be re-elected after sitting out a year. (Photo by James D. Kelly)

Ebby Opisa stands at the entrance to her chicken coop behind her house in Lumakanda just west of Turbo near the Lugari Forest. She raised two children from her village who were orphaned by AIDS and is one of Papa’s assistants. (Photo by James D. Kelly)

Under the shade of a fig tree county livestock officer Sampson Araka begins the AMPATH-sponsored workshop telling attendees how modern scientific methods can help their farming operations survive drought more effectively. (Photo by James D. Kelly)

AMPATH’s Kenneth Malaba and Jane Omutsani, president of the Kaptweti Olgay Dairy Co-op exchange email contact information so that they can follow-up with each other after the workshop. (Photo by James D. Kelly)

The Chandaria Centre on the campus of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, completed in 2015, represents AMPATH’s efforts to expand beyond HIV/AIDS to treatment of all chronic diseases. (Photo by James D. Kelly)

Pamela Were, a senior nurse practitioner for AMPATH, prepares fluids for a patient in the Chemotherapy Administration Area on the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital campus in Eldoret. (Photo by James D. Kelly)

Dr. Fredrick Chite, AMPATH Team Leader of Oncology and Hematology programs, examines Deborah Akeyo Acharo, 71, while making rounds at the Sori Lakeside Hospital as part of a remote cancer and sickle cell screening clinic. (Photo by James D. Kelly)

A Salsa dancing group meets most every evening about 5:00 p.m. in the Social Activities Room of the Rafiki Centre which is located on the periphery of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret. (Photo by James D. Kelly)

James D. Kelly makes photographs in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya in 2009 while a guest of his good friend Noor Khamis, a photographer for Reuters who grew up and continues to live in Africa’s largest slum. (Photo by Noor Khamis)

Footnotes

Photos by James D. Kelly. Reporting by Kirk Johannesen. Video by Myron Russell.

FootNotes

Photos by James D. Kelly. Reporting by Kirk Johannesen. Video by Myron Russell.

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