Israel provided a major boost to the Kenyan medical system in November when a team of Israeli aid workers built the first full emergency room in the country’s third largest city, Kisumu.
The six million people that live in Kisumu and the surrounding region had until now had no facility to provide emergency medical care. A team of 10 Israeli engineers built the state-of-the-art facility in record time, and equipped it with the best medical equipment, all free of charge.
The project was undertaken by MASHAV, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Agency for International Development Cooperation. In a communique released on Monday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced that it will not stop at merely providing the emergency medical care unit, but will use the new facility as a base from which to train local Kenyans in emergency medicine.
MASHAV intends to repeat the Kenyan project in Uganda and Tanzania in the coming months and years.