AUSTIN, Texas — Dr. Karen Keough is a pediatric neurologist in Austin and medical director at Pediatrix Specialty Care of Austin but has also been taking her skills to Kenya for six years.
"It's really what you go into medicine for in the first place, and that was what keeps me going back,” Keough said.
Keough has been working with the Austin nonprofit, the Ubuntu Life Foundation, to give children in Mai Mahiu, Kenya, the specialized medical care they would not normally have access to.
“It was something that I wanted to do from the first time that I heard about it. And after my first trip, I was definitely hooked,” Keough said.
In the past few years since the COVID-19 pandemic, the foundation has been able to build a new clinic and special needs school in the town.
This summer was the first time Keough and other physicians were able to go back to provide in-person medical care since before 2020.
"It's kind of picking up where you left off in in a way,” Keough said. “As soon as you've come, it doesn't feel like you've been gone for very long."
This summer, the organization took a team consisting oKeough, two of her pediatrician friends, an EEG tech, Keough’s son and a medical student for a week long trip to work at the new clinic. Over the week, they were able to see about 50 to 60 patients per day for five days in a row.
PHOTOS: Dr. Karen Keough's Kenya mission trip, summer 2023
“That's a really powerful thing, to see the presence that we've been able to have in the community,” Keough said.
The Ubuntu Life Foundation was able to hire a full-time Kenyan physician this past year to provide care year-round at the clinic and school.
During the years Keough couldn't go in-person to Kenya, she was still able to do telemedicine clinics.
"That gave us an opportunity to continue to see patients remotely from the United States,” she said.
Being able to help these children more than 8,000 miles away in Mai Mahiu is what Keough looks forward to.
"The feeling carries me for quite some time,” Keough said.
A team with the Ubuntu Life Foundation goes on medical mission trips to Kenya about every four months, and the organization is always looking for more physicians, nurses and specialists to take the trip. The next trip to Mai Mahiu is scheduled for this October.
Anyone who wishes to get involved from home can donate to the Ubuntu Life Foundation here.