This week we introduce you to Osborne, one of our Site Coordinators in our East Africa Region.
Osborne Ndalo Amollo grew up in Mombasa, the second-largest city in Kenya, completing highschool in Kisumu, before coming back to Mombasa where he graduated from the Kenya Medical Training College in Clinical Medicine and Surgery.
Interested (and puzzled) by the idea of working for an organisation that provides free health care services, Osborne got introduced to the Blue Box organisation through another of our clinicians, Grace Mwaniki. After Grace’s convincing overview of the NGO, Osborne decided to join North Star and is now the proud Site Coordinator of our Jomvu Roadside Wellness Centre, Kenya, which opened in May this year in combination with one of our first Laboratory facilities on site.
According to Osborne, Jomvu Roadside Wellness Centre is a place where working is both “busy and fun”, with the staff getting along smoothly and where patients are “eager to learn about health related issues”.
Despite a good working atmosphere, Osborne’s job is no small feat, indeed providing high quality health services to a large number of people each day can prove very daunting;
“If we take for example 50 clients per day, keeping in mind that HIV Testing and Counselling is up to 16 clients per day (with 30 minutes per client), the clinician is left with [the responsibility to see] around 34 [clients] per day.” shared Osborne.
To face this challenge, Jomvu Roadside Wellness Centre recently thought outside the box and moved to team-up with Mombasa Roadside Wellness Centre, in order to manage the increasing number of patients while keeping up with their service quality standards.
When the going gets tough, Osborne relies on his love for interacting with and helping people to keep him motivated and focused. He always gets some energy back at the sight of a patient walking out of the clinic with a smile on his or her face despite the disease and the pain.
Described as jolly, generous and hardworking by his friends, Osborne enjoys watching cartoons, travelling and reading novels (among other things) during his spare time.
When it comes North Star’s activities, Osborne wants the public to be more informed about “the high quality standard of services [that the] trained, qualified and caring staff offer”.
Osborne’s recommendations for future North Star employeesare to “understand our core values and see whether you can relate to them”, as well as to live by our beloved Executive Director’s favorite saying ; ‘If it was easy, someone else would have done it’.
Quick Quiz: which of North Star’s PIQuE core values (People, Integrity, Quality, Entrepreneurial Spirit) do you most identify with, and why?
People Matter. I just love interacting with people, which just comes naturally given my good communication and interpersonal skills, making me easy to relate with. Above all, I love helping out other people in any way that I can.”