The James Logan Courier

Thirty-three boxes, filled with about 3,000 books and Logan shirts have arrived in Ugenya, Kenya, a gift to the town's suffering people from Logan’s Hope Connections Club, the club’s advisor said Monday.

“Stop by the glass case in the main hall to look at the pictures of the children with their Logan shirts on reading their books,” advisor Linda Rodrigues wrote in an email announcing the delivery, “Thank you to every one who helped with the Matibabu Project. It made a big difference in the lives of these children.”

The books and clothes were sent to Ugenya to help the Luo tribe which lives there to practice reading English so that the people can educate themselves on how to better take care of themselves and understand the brochures on health issues that will be sent to them in the future, according to Linda Rodrigues, the advisor to the Hope Connections club. About $150 in cash was also sent to buy medical supplies

The village has set aside a hut to be used as a library that's available to residents there.

The Club’s donation was made throught the Matibabu Foundation.

According to their website, the Matibabu Foundation (“Matibabu”) is organized to provide medical care, training and equipment to persons in Ugenya, Kenya, an extremely poor and disadvantaged area in Kenya near Lake Victoria. Matibabu is the Swahili word for "treatment."

The people of Ugenya are subsistence farmers, working tiny plots of land to grow corn and beans. They live in family compounds and are lead by a tribal chief.

About 40 percent of them are HIV positive or have active AIDS. Most all of them have malaria or intestinal parasites. Many have tuberculosis and typhoid fever, tropical ulcers, trachoma, leprosy, severe scabies or fungal skin diseases.

Health clinics there are poorly staff and poorly equipped to handle such illnesses,and are widely scattered. Many people are unable to utilize even these inadequate health facilities because they are too distant or costly.