Our UNC Intern, Grace, has settled into Marsabit, Kenya, at the Tumaini Clinic. Check out her latest post:

Meet Ida Njeru.

Ida recently moved to Marsabit from Meru (over 300 km away and approximately a five-hour drive) to work at Tumaini Clinic as a treatment adherence counselor and social worker. Although her husband and family live in Meru, Ida is living here in Marsabit with her 18-month-old daughter, Amaya.

Ida has been part of the Tumaini team for almost two months, and although she is the youngest member of the team, her work exudes so much grace, kindness, and patience with each patient that it is admirable to witness. Here, she is with a patient that had been lost to follow-up for two years but recently returned to Tumaini to continue treatment after a home visit that Ida completed.

There’s a quote by Dr. Leo Buscaglia, an American author and motivational speaker that reads: “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” In my short time here at Tumaini, Ida alongside the rest of her colleagues have come to be examples of such impact in Marsabit.