Rotary Service in Action: An update on 'The Moses Miracle'

It was 2007, and a group had traveled to Africa to see the potential for a water and sanitation project .
 
Standing outside a youth center in the Mathare Valley Slum (Nairobi, Kenya) at theend of a busy day, I encountered a tattered,
barefoot boy about 3 years old, who longed to be my friend. He stared at me—first with one eye and then the other (never with both
because when one focused, the other turned white and rolled toward his nose). Ours was a short encounter and when our driver said it
was time to leave, I looked out the window of the van and watched as my little friend, longing to leave, disappeared in the crowd of children arriving from school.
 
A year later, I returned to the same place. I looked for my friend, but he was nowhere in sight. I feared the worst. Suddenly, running toward the youth center with other school children, this little boy now appeared in shoes/socks and a school uniform. I rejoiced that I’d found him and made a commitment to tell others about this young lad who, like many of his neighbors, had benefitted from our Club’s water/sanitation project.
 
As the story spread, one day Charlie Barer (fellow Club member and ophthalmologist) leaned over to me and said, “Why don’t we fix his eyes?” It brought tears to my eyes, and a motivation to see if we could find this child. David Waithaka identified him as Moses, the child of his sister who lived in the slums. Quickly, many Rotarians and other members of the community rallied to secure airfare, an eye surgeon, hospital operating room, nurses, and translators. Tim Murphy, who had planned two successive trips with a nine-day stay in the United States in between, worked with Moses’ family to get him registered, as well as his mother, and secure passports. Three days after Moses arrived, he underwent successful surgery with Dr. Jafar Hassan, a partner of Charlie’s and a leading specialist in strabismus.