Despite devolution, many parts of Baringo and Marsabit Counties still lack access to healthcare and healthcare facilities. Areas like East Pokot and Illeret in Baringo and Marsabit Counties respectively are examples. Hifadhi Africa focuses on these areas.
Access to health facilities
Inaccessible road networks constantly deny people access to health services. Lives have been lost on several occasions. Hifadhi Africa is working towards training and equipping Community Health Volunteers (CHV) with motorcycle ambulances. Motorcycles easily maneuver hard terrains and carry medicines and health practitioners to people in need.
Under-resourced and understaffed facilities
The areas we work in still face health challenges such that most operating healthcare facilities do not have the capacity especially in terms of manpower, basic drugs and infrastructure. These requirements often force clinics and dispensaries to close operations or work few days in a month. Results of these have been devastating loss of lives and health deterioration among the sick.
Quality of service delivery
Most of the dispensaries in the regions are wanting, only operating below 40%. There are on average 2 nurses in each dispensary. There are no clinical officers or doctors serving, despite the centres receiving patients with complex conditions like respiratory diseases, diseases of the skin, and urinary tract infection (UTIs), that normally will require services of a CO or a medical doctor. For this, Hifadhi Africa noted lack of preparedness and response to health crisis like malaria, diarrhea trachoma and COVID-19 outbreaks. Children under 5, expectant women and the elderly are the most affected.
Considering the low patients' attendance in all the existing health facilities in East Pokot, there is need to take health services to the people in villages on a monthly basis. In this arrangement, Community Health Volunteers (CHV) will be capacitated to conduct community integrated outreaches and mobile clinics. Monthly integrated mobile clinic/outreach is practical but we need resources to successfully implement. The need include medicine, motorcycle ambulances and volunteers' training and facilitation.
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HAO SOLUTIONS
The Mama Kit
HAO's $10 maternity kit is a safe, accessible, affordable and available delivery kit for expectant mothers seeking services of unskilled traditional birth attendants and midwives in rural Kenya. MAMA kit contains is equipped with surgical gloves, maternity sanitary towel, surgical blade, umbilical cord knot, disinfectant, gauze, baby blanket, toiletry bag, and face mask. MAMA kits are necessary essentials for families expecting newborn babies but are not easily afforded by pregnant mothers in rural areas. The kits have shown to reduce the chances of complicated birthing and infections – which are often the leading cause of maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality globally.
Good Health, Good Life Program
The programme creates a platform for grassroots enlightenment on healthy living, sexual and reproductive health and rights, sexual and gender based violence (SGBV), communicable diseases, sanitation and hygiene, water borne diseases, etc. Through the programme, HAO invites practitioners, volunteers, donors and stallholders to participate in periodical health training campaigns and free mobile clinics. We also aim to educate the communities on their rights when it comes to healthcare access to National insurance coverage like NHIF.
Preparedness and response to Health crisis
2020 delivered the most brutal lesson for non-profits, policy makers and health practitioners – the critical importance and relevance of almost irreplaceable role of local solutions and actors in fighting plaques threatening annihilation of humanity. Covid-19 pandemic completely disrupted health systems and services. Similarly, climate change demonstrated the same need to support local communities and actors in fighting global health challenges. Sadly, those engaged in philanthropy are far removed from and lack the experience and perspective of the people most directly impacted by the problems they are trying to help solve.
HAO is leading efforts to mobilize medical equipment, water tanks, nurse housing, community resilience capacity building support, incentivization of local nursing and medical graduate volunteers etc. in rural Kenya. These efforts results in effective service delivery. We are therefore seeking your support.
Strategic Research and Linkages
HAO is partnering with local clinics and community-based health centers like Santa Clara Medical Centre in East Pokot to provide strategic research, training, awareness outreaches, referrals and linkages to affected communities. Some of the organizations and individuals we have collaborated before include Chain of Hope and Bob and Chris Cairns.
Our aim is to strengthen quality of healthcare delivery by 25% and improve availability of assisted birth deliveries by 30% by training traditional birth attendants (TBAs) to reverse the trends of high maternal morbidity and mortality rates.