OYUGIS INTEGRATED PROJECT (OIP)
Oyugis Integrated Project is located in Kasipul Division, Rachuonyo South Sub-County, Homa Bay County, Nyanza region, Kenya East Africa. The history of the project dates back to 1982 when it was started by ‘Brothers of our Lady Mother of Mercy’, a religious congregation under the Catholic Church. During this time Brothers encountered four major needs for the society around Oyugis. These were;
I.Water problem
II.Books for orphans to read
III.Wounds requiring medical attention
IV.Social assistance for widows, orphans and families affected by poverty and diseases.
The religious Brothers through local community endeavored to tackle these problems and they established water tanks to supply water and set up community library to assist orphan students and pupils to study.They also striven to address wounds for the hundreds of patients who visited the place. While treating wounds they were confronted with unfamiliar situation whereby it was observed that the sizes of the wounds became bigger and
bigger and the affected people were dying. Initially the hospitals around Oyugis area blamed this on deteriorating immunity in the peoples body which was thought to be caused by poverty and poor hygiene. Later in the mid 1980’s it was discovered that there emerged an incurable disease known as HIV/AIDS in Kenya and other parts of the world. The project came up with a health center known as Shirikisho to cater for medical attention. The project was started in 1997 but officially registered in Ministry of culture and social services in the year 2000.
Over the years the project has developed three major departments to address HIV/AIDS pandemic in Oyugis area. These are;
I.Medical Department
II.Social and Agriculture Department.
III.General Service Department
The project adopted an Integrated approach whereby each department is interrelated and independent on each other. The main aim was to provide holistic approach to address the HIV/AIDS problem which require both curative and preventive intervention as well as deal with consequences of the disease such as orphans. Shirikisho Health Center under Oyugis Integrated Project assist the poor, old persons, persons with disability ,HIV patients Orphans and vulnerable children.
This overview is not complete but wants to give the reader of this report an impression of what is going in within the OIP.
OYUGIS INTEGRATED PROJECT 