Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel Worldwide supports Visionary Philanthropic Travelers like Milton, Maurice and Fred Ochieng. In just one morning or afternoon you too can experience the success of the Ochieng Brothers efforts. Their project is in a close proximity to the Great Migration across the Serengetti Plains, fishing Lake Victoria or climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. 10% of our profit from your private guided flying safari and your spare change go directly to support their work.
Exquisite Safaris Visionary Philanthropic Travellers and partners: Fred and Milton Ochieng interviewed by David Chamberlain.
Who are you, where do you come from, what are you attempting to accomplish?
My name is Frederick Otieno Ochieng and I am the third born in a family of six children. My brother Milton Oludhe Ochieng is currently in his third year of medical school at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine whereas I am in the first year class. We all grew up in Lwala, a rural village without running water or electricity, in Nyanza province of Kenya. To get to see a doctor, one walks five and a half miles down an unpaved road, then waits for public service vans, matatus, to take them on a bumpy twenty mile ride to the nearest government owned hospital. The lack of health facilities at times had tragic consequences. We vividly remember how one time, a pregnant mother who developed complications during labor had to be hauled in a neighbor's wheelbarrow to try to get her to the paved road then to the hospital, passed away en route. The body of the baby and the mother were returned to a wailing village by the same wheelbarrow. While growing up, we were always aware of the lack of health care in our village and surrounding communities. Both Milton and I got interested in medicine. With inspiration from a cross-cultural service trip to Nicaragua during his undergraduate years in Dartmouth College when they built a medical clinic, Milton was inspired to start a clinic in our village during his first year of medical school. He consulted via e-mail and phone with my ailing father, Mr. Erastus Ochieng. He spoke with me about the vision. In early 2005, while he and my father worked on the plans and details, he asked me to begin fundraising for the clinic. During a Navigators Northeast Conference at the end of January 2005, I gave an address to students and staff from some thirteen colleges and universities who raised $9,000 for the clinic. Unfortunately, along the way, we lost both our parents to AIDS. Beloved Margaret in January 2004 and Erastus in May 2006. My eldest brother Maurice Omondi Ochieng has taken over the role of the coordinator back in Lwala, working with the community members. The vision has gathered momentum. We hope to see patients early April 2007. Now we need funds and partners to sustain the running of the clinic.
How do two brothers in a remote village in Kenya get scholarships to Dartmouth and attend medical school at Vanderbilt?
My mother taught in primary school and my father taught Chemistry and Biology in secondary school. They both valued education; they acquired loans to send us to good boarding schools and instilled in us good discipline. Milton was the first to qualify for admission to Alliance High School, the oldest and probably the finest high school in Kenya. I joined him a year later. In his third year, he was one of the two students selected to represent Alliance High School on an exchange program with Brooks School, Andover, Massachusetts. He met Alliance alumni who were attending Harvard, MIT and other colleges in the U.S. The capable advisors and fellow students guided us through the test and application process. We both gave up our chances to attend medical school in Nairobi University for liberal arts training at Dartmouth College in the U.S. The need-blind admission policy offered a unique opportunity for a wonderful education for both of us. Getting into medical school is especially tough for an international student given the narrow selection of schools that admit them. However, Milton, a Biochemistry major, was later accepted into Yale, Vanderbilt and Dartmouth Medical Schools. Warm weather for his tropical soul, a full tuition Deans Scholarship, amongst other things drew Milton to Vanderbilt. A Biophysical Chemistry major, I got in after taking a year off to do chemistry research at Dartmouth, fundraising and conducting a needs assessment survey for the clinic. Looking at how far we have come, we are always heartbroken to reflect upon the countless sacrifices our parents made for us to get educated, yet neither of them ever witnessed our college graduations nor ever got to see the country where they had faith to let their children go to learn.
