At Tenwek Hospital in Kenya, Dr. Lydiah Ngigi recently described caring for a critically ill child whose family had traveled all the way from Tanzania seeking help.
“They do not have money,” she explained. “They do not have any insurance at the moment, and you can see that the child is really sick.”
Those moments are why Lydiah pursued additional medical training in the first place.
Today, she serves as a family medicine consultant at Tenwek Hospital after completing her residency training in Kenya through Kabarak University’s family medicine program. But reaching this point was far from guaranteed.
“I really wanted to go back to school, because I felt I was in a place where I needed more training to be able to offer better care, better services,” Lydiah shared during a recent interview with MedSend.
Without scholarship support through MedSend’s National Scholars Program, she says she would not have been able to continue.
“If it weren’t for the scholarship, I wouldn’t be here at Tenwek Hospital.”
Watch Lydiah’s Story
Training Physicians for Communities in Need
Lydiah enrolled in family medicine because she wanted broader clinical skills to care for patients in resource-limited settings. According to a recommendation written during her residency training, she hoped to strengthen emergency and outpatient care in rural hospitals that often lack specialized personnel and infrastructure.
That vision now shapes her daily work.
At Tenwek Hospital, she cares for patients facing serious illness, financial hardship, and limited access to healthcare. Her training allows her to respond across a wide range of medical needs while serving in a setting where physicians are asked to carry significant responsibility.
Faculty and supervisors consistently described Lydiah as both clinically strong and deeply compassionate.
One residency leader wrote that she had “an outstanding compassionate bedside manner” and was “very sensitive to the needs of patients.”
Another noted her “wonderful teamwork and spirit of curiosity.”
Those qualities are now being lived out every day in patient rooms and hospital wards across Kenya.
Compassionate Healthcare in Kenya Requires More Trained Physicians
Across Kenya and much of sub-Saharan Africa, access to trained physicians remains limited, especially in rural communities. Family medicine physicians like Lydiah help fill critical gaps in care by treating a wide range of conditions and responding to emergencies in hospitals with limited resources.
MedSend’s National Scholars Program helps physicians begin and complete residency training so they can return to serve their own communities with advanced skills, leadership, and compassionate care.
This is one of the ways healthcare opens doors to deeper relationships, trust, and the hope of the Gospel in communities where care is urgently needed.
A Fiscal Year-End Opportunity
As MedSend approaches the end of the fiscal year on June 30, more physicians are ready to train and serve in places where patients are still waiting for care.
Lydiah’s story is one example of what becomes possible when donors invest in the training of Christian physicians serving in their own communities.
Your support helps make that training possible.
Give before June 30 to help train and support more physicians like Dr. Lydiah Ngigi through MedSend’s National Scholars Program.
Read Lydiah’s Full Story
“If it weren’t for the scholarship, I wouldn’t be here at Tenwek Hospital.
The following is a lightly edited transcript from MedSend’s interview with Dr. Lydiah Ngigi, a family medicine consultant at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya and a graduate of MedSend’s National Scholars Program.*
My name is Lydiah Ngigi. I’m currently a family medicine consultant, having graduated from the family medicine program here at Tenwek Hospital. I have now been a consultant for two years, and this is my seventh year at Tenwek.
When I was looking into which residency program to join, I came to learn about the family medicine program at Kabarak University. One of the major reasons I enrolled was because there was a scholarship being offered.
I really wanted to go back to school because I felt I was in a place where I needed more training to be able to offer better care and better services. I needed training to be able to handle emergencies across the board.
If it weren’t for the scholarship, I wouldn’t be here at Tenwek Hospital, because there was no way I was going to be able to afford four years of training.
MedSend made it possible for me to become a family physician.
Just before coming to this interview, I saw a patient whose family had traveled all the way from Tanzania. They do not have money or insurance at the moment, and you can see the child is really sick and needs admission.
We are grateful every day. May God bless you.
