This March, we celebrate the arrival of new life and the opening of new doors.
At Lalmba, “New Beginnings” are a daily reality. Because of your partnership, our local staff are on the front lines ensuring every child has a chance to thrive, no matter how remote their home.
Your support provides the medicine, salaries, and facilities that allow Lalmba staff members like Hiwot and Steve to serve their own communities with compassion.
Thank you for making these new beginnings possible.
Steve Oketch, Matoso Clinic In-Charge, treats a two year old girl for a severe respiratory illness. She responded well to the care and has made a full recovery.
Family members carried this mother for miles on a handmade stretcher to reach the Agaro Bushi clinic. Our skilled medical team met her at the gates, providing the urgent care she needed for a safe
delivery.
Volume 62. No. 2
January – March 2026
In December, a three-month-old baby named Meseret, suffering from weakness and dehydration due to lack of breastfeeding, was brought to the Agaro Bushi clinic in the arms of her grandmother. Meseret’s mother, struggling from post-delivery psychosis, left their home and the infant was no longer breastfeeding.
Lalmba’s medical team immediately stepped in, providing a bottle and starting Meseret on formula. They sat with the family, teaching the girl’s aunt and father how to continue the feedings at home.
But at the “end of the road,” life is rarely simple. When the family didn’t return for their follow-up, our Public Health Coordinator, Hiwot Wondimu, didn’t wait. She traveled into the Shefa community to find them. She discovered the entire household had been ill and unable to travel to the clinic for more formula. They had begun giving Meseret cow’s milk just to keep her belly full.
Hiwot and the Agaro Bushi staff walked alongside the family, Hiwot holding baby Meseret – Agaro Bushi Medium Clinic, Ethiopia explaining the vital importance of the formula for a baby so small. Their persistence paid off. The following week, Meseret returned to the clinic. We are happy to report she had gained almost an entire kilogram! She is now smiling and reaching for the world around her.
It is your support that puts Hiwot on those remote foot paths to check on families like Meseret’s. You are the reason our local medical and public health teams have the formula and the resources they need to ensure no child is forgotten.
Announcing The New Program Improvements & Maintenance List!
Help our teams save lives by providing essential medical equipment.
You can access this list here.
Every weekday morning at Lalmba’s Matoso Clinic in Kenya, before the doors open to the public, our team gathers. They greet one another, join in song and prayer, make announcements, and prepare for the day ahead. It is a great way to start the morning and prepare for any challenges the day may bring.
While the clinic officially closes in the evenings and on weekends, the care never stops. A nurse or clinical officer remains on-call to ensure any emergencies are handled. One weekend, this past January, it was Steve Oketch, our Clinical Officer and in-charge of the clinic, who had the weekend shift.
It turned out to be a busy weekend. During the Monday morning debriefing, Steve shared the news of his weekend: he had delivered four babies in just forty-eight hours. Most remarkable was a set of twins, one boy and one girl, who shared a single placenta. This is a high-risk complication even in modern hospitals, but in a remote clinic, it requires extraordinary skill and composure.
As the staff heard the news, the team erupted in applause and cheers for Steve’s dedication. In this part of the world, a safe delivery is a hard-won victory. Four in one weekend is a monumental achievement.
Steve’s tireless work is a reflection of Lalmba’s commitment. He shows up for the community when they need it most, no matter the hour. Your support ensures that when a mother arrives at our gates in the middle of the night or over a weekend, a skilled medical professional like Steve is there to help.
We sat down with Steve just after that morning greeting to talk about the experience. You can watch that interview and hear Steve share the story himself below.
Our team in Kenya is celebrating a historic milestone! During the week of March 16th, we will officially celebrate the grand opening of the new maternity ward at the Matoso Clinic.
For years, our nurses have performed miracles in cramped, repurposed spaces. Now, mothers in the Matoso region will have a dedicated, modern environment to welcome their children into the world.
This “new beginning” was made possible by a dedicated community of Lalmba supporters who believe in the safety of mothers and infants. We want to share a special thank you with those of you who stood by us over many years to fund this renovation. Because of your persistence, the original clinic building is now a modern maternity ward, complete with a new solar system that powers the entire facility (installed after this photo was taken).
We also want to recognize the Tri-Lakes Dynamic Rotary Club and Rotary District 5470. Their generous funding for maternity beds and essential equipment has transformed this building into a fully functioning medical center.
This milestone belongs to everyone who stands with Lalmba. Whether you gave specifically to the renovation or support our daily operations, you are the reason we are improving care at the end of the road. Your shared commitment ensures that children in Matoso, and across all our programs, begin their lives with the medical care and health they deserve.
Lalmba proudly partners with the Missionary Community of Saint Paul the Apostle (MCSPA), whose local staff have served this region for years. This new dispensary is a direct and powerful response to the struggles this community faces in an incredibly remote region. It was funded through Lalmba by a former Lalmba volunteer, a doctor whose service in Sudan decades ago moved him and his family to make this lasting gift.
As the only dedicated medical building for over 50 kilometers in any direction, this small clinic, on the edge of a refugee village at the base of Naturomoe hill, provides a Clinical Officer, Francis, and Nurse, Akales, a fixed place to treat injuries, deliver immunizations, and save lives. It is a sign of our shared commitment to communities at the end of the road.
“In early 2021, at the start of our community outreach, we found three orphaned children living in an open, makeshift shelter. Their parents were gone, and their elderly grandfather couldn’t provide a proper home. Lalmba immediately built a shelter for the grandfather. Though the children were too old for our children’s home, we refused to abandon them. I personally took in one boy, and my colleague Linder took in a girl. It was a privilege to watch them thrive. The girl is now happily married and starting a family; the boy I took in is also grown, married, and living a happy life. That story and the place we found them still move me deeply. This is just one example of the lives changed through Lalmba’s home-based care. While we can’t house every child, by modeling this kind of care—as Linder (Linda), I, and other community guardians have done—we meet the needs of many. The commitment of Lalmba and the support of our donors bring real change to our community, one child and one family at a time.”
“Lalmba holds a great history in my life — I was once one of the children they supported. After losing my family and feeling hopeless about my education, Lalmba provided essential aid like school materials, medical care, and even paid my rent when I became an orphan without shelter. That support changed everything. Through determination, I continued my education and am now the Ethiopia Country Director for Lalmba. When I serve these children today, I see myself in their eyes and know I am living proof that Lalmba acts as a real mother and father, giving a chance at a fulfilling life. This is the greatest history I have — it’s my life.”
Lalmba, alongside our team of experts, immediately stepped in, building a shelter for the grandfather. While the children were a little too old to enter the children’s home, we refused to leave them on the streets. I took one boy into my own home, and my colleague Linder (Linda) took a girl.
When Atinafu looks at the children Lalmba serves today, he sees himself. He is a reminder of how Lalmba works.
Over the years, Lalmba has provided a small amount of financial support for medical care, helping MCSPA employ a Nyangatom clinical officer, Francis, and recently a nurse, Akales, who serve this remote community. During our visit, we witnessed the necessity of this work when we visited a man in his 30s or 40s whose gradual paralysis has now left him completely unable to move. This illness has devastated his family. He can no longer tend to their livestock or bring food to his family, forcing his wife to rely solely on her small garden and pushing them to the fringe of their community. The quiet time we spent with them in their traditional grass hut brought home the harsh struggle to access even basic medical support in such a remote area.
This new dispensary is a direct and impactful response to the struggles we saw in that remote village. It was funded through Lalmba by a former Lalmba volunteer, a doctor whose service in Sudan decades ago moved him and his family to make this enduring gift. As the only dedicated medical building for over 50 kilometers in any direction, this small clinic, on the edge of a refugee village at the base of Naturomoe hill, provides Francis and Akales a place to treat injuries, deliver immunizations, and save lives. It is a sign of our shared commitment to communities at the end of the road.
This partnership with MCSPA and the two Spanish priest living there, Father Angel and Father David did not happen quickly. Lalmba first visited this remote region in 2016. At that time, the two priests were living in a small tent camp in the searing heat of the Omo River valley. They had been working with the Nyangatom since 2014, having previously spent a decade across the border with the Turkana tribe.
We witnessed the challenges, but we also saw their deep passion and commitment to these people. Their faithful, humble work, focused on community, has achieved incredible things. In the years the priests have lived there, two historically warring tribes — the Nyangatom and the Turkana — have begun to live in peace. That is the quiet, powerful result of long-term respect and faith driven persistence.
This new clinic building is ready at the perfect moment. It is the steady place Francis and Akales need to do their life-saving work. Over the next year, we will be carefully figuring out how Lalmba can best proceed with our partners. Your support is an investment in this long, patient work, ensuring that hope and healing always have a home, even in the farthest reaches of the Omo Valley.
This is why our empowerment pillar is so critical for the communities Lalmba serves! When people have access to healthcare, education, and economic opportunity, they can build a better future — not just for themselves, but for their entire RCAR Gaurdians learning to weave community. That’s why our work weaves these efforts together—medical care, at-risk children, and empowerment — to create lasting change. By investing in spaces and opportunities for learning and growth, we’re helping knowledge spread from person to person and generation to generation, paving the way for a brighter, more self-sufficient future.
Lalmba’s 61-year legacy is one of innovation and progress. Hope drives us to seek groundbreaking solutions, explore new possibilities, and push the boundaries of human potential by supporting communities to find and amplify their own voices.
What happens in our clinics when the global landscape of medical care begins to shift?
On June 15th, a remarkable team of adventurers will set out on Tembea Na Mimi 2025 — a 150 to 180 mile trek through Kenya’s vast savannas of the Maasai Mara and rural communities to Lalmba’s clinic on the shores of Lake Victoria. But this is no ordinary journey. It’s a walk with purpose, a step-by-step commitment to supporting Lalmba’s mission of providing medical care, education, and empowerment to those in need.