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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-02-16 Daily Xml
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WORLD YOUTH INTERNATIONAL

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (15:13): I want to continue my comments from yesterday when I was talking about some of the amazing things that our young people are doing, particularly those who are overseas. I mentioned a young woman called Kate. As I was saying, she is a very caring, dedicated and enterprising young woman, and she is an incredibly strong young woman as well.

When she was in Kenya and she saw a family or a child in terrible circumstances, she went above and beyond to do what she could to improve their lives. As an example, Kate came across a deaf woman with children whose husband had died, and, as I understand about her culture—thank heavens we do not do that here; or maybe we do—if the husband dies, the woman is expected to marry the elder brother in the family. This lady called Lillian refused to do that, and she was shunned in her community and sent out. So, there she was, she was deaf, she had children and she had absolutely nowhere to live; so, she was homeless.

Kate, being the caring young woman that she is, contacted her mother and was telling her about this, and so between her mother and me we sent some money across and Kate set about ensuring that a house was constructed to house Lillian and her family. It might have been built out of wood poles and mud but it turned out to be a very lovely home. It is a secure environment for the family and, in fact, it was built a little bit larger to house Lillian's carer who also had a child and who needed somewhere to live. The construction of that home meant that two families have a very safe place to live, and they are extremely happy.

I might just also mention that Kate saved a woman from dying in the street because no-one seemed to be terribly interested and she needed urgent medical care. Kate held a child in her arms that she helped birth, and she stood up for the rights of people who were being abused in the streets. I think that we can make no mistake about it: this young woman can be formidable when put to the test. I have to say that it is an extreme pleasure to know her.

I know another young woman who is involved in the program. She was there as Kate was starting to move away and come home, and she continued the work that Kate was doing in a craft group. She taught the women in this group various techniques about dyeing material and other things they could do so that the women could market some of these new products they were making. While she was doing that, and as part of the reason she was there, she took the opportunity to talk to them about things like birth control, the transfer of AIDS and other things around health and hygiene issues.

She and Matt, who was there with her (another young man I know who is very enterprising), ran portable health clinics and treated hundreds of people in one session. It was amazing to read the emails they would send back and to see the pictures. Matt also told me that jiggers is one of the worst complaints over there. It is a parasitic sand flea that burrows under the skin and the nails of the feet and causes terrible infections, deformities, ulcers and gangrene. It creates walking difficulties, and, obviously with things like that, there can be limb loss.

The severe itching that comes with this causes insomnia and psychological discomfort, and it is the main cause of school absenteeism in Kenya. Prevention by good personal hygiene, wearing closed shoes, sweeping the floor, cementing the floor (where possible, of course) and keeping domestic animals out of the living area all help to eradicate this terrible disease. These are probably obvious solutions to us, but in a poverty stricken society it is impossible to enforce or even create these conditions, particularly for people who are really struggling. I still have more to go, and so I will take another opportunity because it is a wonderful story.

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