CCC’s first day in the Maasai Mara brought the excitement of establishing the Mela Kent Cure Cervical Cancer Clinic donated by her grandsons. The CCC’s clinic is part of a larger clinic built by African Mission Services.In the morning we took on the huge task of unpacking all the equipment we brought with us. We then commenced to set up two examining rooms and space to receive all the Maasai women and record their personal information. Our key next step was to train the local doctor and nurses in the See and Treat procedure with vinegar and cryotherapy. A local representative from the Ministry of Health joined us to learn the procedure.The Maasai women were waiting for us seated on long wooden benches. They were nervous and apprehensive as this was their very first pelvic exam! One by one they entered our examination rooms and were screened with the Vinegar procedure.
We were shocked to find a large percentage of women who had precancerous lesions. In fact approximately 35% had aceto-white lesions. This required considerable time and energy in giving them cryotherapy to rid them of the precancerous lesions.As the Maasai women kept appearing for exams, we worked throughout the morning, lunch break and afternoon. CCC was delighted to have Cullen Hallinan and Kim Borden as well as our board member Ellen Bonaparte PhD actively assisted Dr. Patricia Gordon.After a very busy day we were inspired to spend the next four days treating more VIA positive Maasai women in this very remote and needy community. We were equally delighted to start the training process of the dedicated doctor and nurses who will maintain the Mela Kent sustainable and ongoing permanent clinic here in the Maasai Mara.