Beginning of November 2010, the German Ambassador to Kenya Mrs Margaret Hellwig-Boette visited the TULISA supported Kibera Health Centre which is located in Kibera the notorious slum of Nairobi accommodating approximately one million people on an area 5 square kilometres. She came to see with own eyes the problems the people are facing there, especially health problems and related health promotion activities in one of the largest if not the largest slum of Africa.

Talking to patients and health workers – doctors and nurses – she got first-hand information on what diseases and medical challenges are prevalent here. Many issues were raised by the German Ambassador: HIV/AIDS and its control, maternal and child health, the terrible link of poverty and disease as well as the role of Kenyan politicians and their responsibility for the local population.

The Ambassador also paid a visit to the attached school on the same compound, where lively and interesting discussions with students and teachers were possible.

At the end of the visit Mrs Hellwig-Boette was interviewed by a local radio station. She didn’t leave Kibera without having left the impression to patients and health workers alike that she was there with great empathy, a sincere interest and open ears and heart for the poor and marginalized in her host country.