A free nonprofit health clinic on a small island off the coast of Kenya in the Indian Ocean has been serving thousands of impoverished families since 2007, largely through the financial support of the Bloomington-Normal community.
The Lamu Center of Preventative Health [LCPH] will be holding its 15th annual “friendraiser” event from 9 a.m. until noon Sunday at Underwood Park in Normal.
LCPH was founded in 2007 by Bloomington neurologist Munib Mafazy and his wife Rebecca Gearhart Mafazy after Munib’s father died of what he called a “preventable heart attack,” according to LCPH treasurer Jim Simeone.
“This is an organization that has been, you could say, adopted by Bloomington-Normal as a not-for-profit,” Simeone said. “Every dollar we collect goes towards the clinic.”
Simeone explained the clinic opened with the help of a grant from the Normal Rotary Club and Rotary International, adding LCPH is working to secure funding from the Rotary to bring a dental clinic to Lamu.
Simeone said physicians from Bloomington-Normal have traveled to Kenya periodically to help staff eye clinics, and noted each LCPH board member traveled there in 2023 to help operate the week-long clinic.
“That’s a pretty special service that they [the patients] would not just have [or] be able to access in their ordinary lives,” Simeone said. “The clinic provides its services for free.”
Simeone said students who served as medical interns were able to advance their careers through those internships.
“We have some Illinois Wesleyan alums who are now eye doctors. They worked as interns originally but now they actually run the eye clinic,” said Simeone, adding the center plans to host another eye clinic in 2026.
According to Simeone, the LCPH friendraiser event attracts more than 150 people annually and will be joined by the Park Drag United soccer club of Normal.
“Not only do we have our standard stalwart donors who have been showing up for years and have been supporting the clinic for, as I say, over 15 years — we also have cultivated a relationship with the Park Drag United soccer club,” Simeone said. “They come and play soccer at Underwood and then join us for breakfast.”
“You’ll have people from all walks of life — from all parts of the world really,” Simeone said.
The Park Drag soccer club has members from Africa, South America, Europe and Asia.
“LCPH is a byproduct of the Illinois Wesleyan University and the Bloomington-Normal community and it’s the best of Bloomington-Normal in my opinion and something we all should be proud of,” Simeone said.
