Kenyan-German Couple Making Healthcare Accessible in Kenya and Germany

They are a true representation of building bridges between two cultures and the power of inter cultural interactions.

Catherine and her husband Dr. Klaus Flohr, a Kenyan German couple that has dedicated their lives to ensuring EVERYONE in their surroundings gets access to good quality health care. Interstingly, Catherine who is a Kenyan, is involved volunteering in Germany, while her husband who is German, volunteers in Kenya. An amazing exchange and cooperation or as Germans would call it, zusammenarbeit.

I’ve featured Catherine when she won the Yilmaz-Akyürek-Preis  for Integration for her engagement with the migrant community in Osnabrück. Catherine is a trained nurse and works for Malteser. She mainly works with the migrant community helping them to get health care with or without health insurance. She also goes out of her way to accompany them to offices and even house them in her home. She has been in Germany for 23 years.

Dr. Klaus on the other hand is a gynaecologist and is the senior physician in the Gynecology Department at St. Mary’s Hospital Osnabrück. In the 90s he worked in Kenya as a development worker where he met Bishop Normann Wambua from the Bungoma Diocese, where he lived with his family at the time. Together with the bishop they started a program to help further develop the Holy Family Mission Hospital, in Nangina.

For two weeks, Dr. Klaus together with employees from the Niels-Stensen Clinic, the St. Mary’s Hospital Osnabrück , the Christian Hospital Melle and the Hospital St. Raphael Ostercappeln; performed surgeries and trained the employees of the hospital.

“Education is the most important for the employees”, Dr. Flohr said . “But medical equipment is crucial”, Dr. Guido,  Head of  trauma surgery at the Christian Hospital Melle added. Therefore, the Niels-Stensen clinic supported the hospital with medical equipment, including an anaesthesia machine.

Dr. Klaus and his team, proud of the reception they received during their visit and the team work they experienced working at the hospital plan to return to Nangina again this fall.

The Flohrs have been married for over 20years and has three children. The power couple continues to to do their part in ensuring people access good quality health care regardless of their location and financial muscle.

We salute them for their amazing work.