Milton and Fred Ochieng

Milton and Fred Ochieng were two brothers from the remote village of Lwala in western Kenya. There weren’t any doctors or health clinics in their village. To get medical care they had to walk for an hour to the nearest road and then try to get a taxi. If there was an emergency, someone had an injury they would carry that person on the back of a bicycle or push them on the wheelbarrow. They were just two of those villagers who struggled to receive care.

Milton Ochieng’s passion for medicine won him a full scholarship to Dartmouth College. The problem was that he didn’t have $900 to pay for the plane ticket. His community stepped in. “The village sold their chickens, cows, goats,” he said. “This was not just success for my parents, my family, it was success for the whole village. They saw it as a way of investing in one of their own. They even gave their savings for me.”

Before he left his village, the elders told him to remember where he was from. They said “’When you go to America, remember us and make sure you come back and help our community.’” On his first year at college he travelled with other students to a village in rural Nicaragua and helped build a clinic. That gave him an idea. When he went back to his village he told his father about his plans to build a clinic in their own village. Milton’s brother Fred Ochieng also studied at Dartmouth. Together they decided to raise money for a clinic in their own village.

“I remember receiving this letter from a little girl who was 8; her brother was 4,” Fred Ochieng’ recalled. “They emptied their piggybanks and put together $45.” Some children even asked for donations instead of a birthday present. High school students held a penny war. They gave cans to each classroom to see who would raise the most money.

After two years two brothers had $150000. It was enough to go back to Lwala and build the clinic. They also got some support from other non-profit organisations. Just before they started building the clinic their both parents died because of the same illness. After starting the building they say that the money they raised was not enough. During that time Milton met Barry Simmons, a local TV reporter looking for a story. He was very impressed by their effort and determination that he quit his job, joined the brothers on their journey and made a documentary film called “Sons of Lwala.” The Lwala Community Memorial Health Center opened its doors in April 2007 and since then has seen more than 1,500 patients a month. The boys changed a village, which didn’t even have electricity to one that has a health centre. Simmons said “They taught us what community really means, what love looks like. They didn’t have to send Milton to America. A lot of them weren’t related to him. But they did it because when you’re in Lwala, when you’re born in Lwala, you’re a son to everyone.”