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Personal Stories
Amref Scholarship Changed my Life: Kuresoi’s Story
In 2017, 16-year-old Kuresoi Kurembo completed his primary education and passed with flying colours. However, when his peers were joining secondary school, he was forced to repeat class eight not because he had failed, but due to lack of school fees. Born and raised in a low-income household, Kuresoi lives with his family in the rural village of Iltilal, Kajiado County. His father is a herder. For the second time in class eight, the brilliant boy passed his examination but still, he was staring at a bleak future because his parents could not afford to take him to secondary school. He sco
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Personal Stories
Rescued from Child Marriage and Back in School: Janet’s Story
Janet Sein is smart, confident and has a contagious smile. When she finished her primary education in 2018, the possibility of going to secondary school was next to impossible. The 17-year-old girl from a remote rural area Iltilal Village, Kajiado County recalls how she had opted to be married off since her parents could not afford to pay school fees for her secondary education. Her hopes of becoming a lawyer almost faded when she was to go through the harmful transition of childhood to adulthood through Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). “In 2018,
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News
Nine counties to benefit from Sh300m EU grant in virus war
Nine counties will benefit from a Sh302.5 million grant from the European Union to boost their Covid-19 response capacities. The programme, to be managed by Amref Health Africa, will be implemented over the next seven months and is geared towards increasing testing, enhancing home-based care and supporting local innovations such as no-touch hand-washing stations. Speaking in Nanyuki on Thursday after a meeting with the county Covid-19 emergency response task force, Amref Health Africa Country Director Meshack Ndirangu said the money will complement counties’ investments in the fight ag
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Personal Stories
Men Setting the Pace for Mobilization in the Uptake of Modern Contraception in Samburu
By Raphaella Ekiru, Wako Banchale Saidimu Leparlele is a new male champion paving the way for marginalised women to access modern contraceptive methods. At 54, Saidimu who hails from Bendera Village of Bendera Community Health Unit, Samburu County, is wading through a highly patriarchal community filled with rumours, myths, and misconceptions about family planning, to create new frontiers for men to learn about the availability, usage, and benefits of modern contraception. Leading by example, this is how Saidimu’s informed position on modern contraceptives is building a protecti
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Personal Stories
One Man, One Vision, and the Five Hills
“Every hill has its leopard” African proverb In African culture, mountains and hills play a critical role in traditional leadership and practices. Equally, in the Samburu community, traditional leadership is defined by the landscape and age sets. It has a significant influence on the communities under their jurisdiction. The leadership consists of the Samburu Council of Elders. Clan elders from different clans and age set famously known as the ‘five hills,’ namely, Ng’iro, Kirisia, Loroki, Ol Doinyo Lenkiyo and Ndoro. The clan elders are the gatekeepers of the com
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Blog
Ensuring the Continuity of Reproductive Health Services during COVID-19
By John Kutna and Gilbert Wangalwa In the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the provision of many health services has been nearly paralysed nationally, especially in the arid and semi-arid areas due to the limited availability of human resources for health. This has had a direct effect on the uptake of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) and nutrition services. In this challenging season, adjusting to the ‘new normal’ has become critical. It all started with a ban on public gatherings, advice to minimise movements and social distancing by the go
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By Beverly Mademba Many cycles (pun intended) have passed since we celebrated the first Menstrual Hygiene Day in 2014, and since stakeholders started advocating for a stand-alone Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) policy for Kenya in 2015 under the leadership of the Ministry of Health. As we start counting a new cycle whose first day was marked by the launch of Kenya’s Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) Policy 2019 – 20301 and an MHM Strategy 2019 – 20242; I, for one, cannot hold the flow. I am excited! Yes, a policy document does not magically change the situation, making it th
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Blog
In Kenya, A Chance to See Communities Confront COVID-19
BY ERNEST WAITITU, STAFF AT THE GLOBAL FUND IN Voices ON 09 June 2020
It feels like a year ago now. But it was on 19 March, when I left for my hometown of Nairobi from Geneva, where I live and work. I landed in Nairobi on the morning of 20 March, a week after Kenya had confirmed its first case of the coronavirus, and a few days before Nairobi’s airports were closed for regular international passengers. Read More -
Blog
Kenya’s COVID-19 Response is Affecting the Well-Being of Women and Girls
At the beginning of this year, I followed up on a story of a girl Sarah**, (not her real name) and her mother from Ramole Village in Kenya’s Marsabit County. Their property was taken away because her mother did not give birth to a male child. Therefore, there was no one to inherit her father’s property in line with the Borana culture, and Sarah and her mother were left with absolutely nothing. Sarah and her mother shared this story with me with tears in their eyes, explaining what they were going through and why they needed to be supported. Sarah attends a public primary school a few ki
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Blog
What the COVID-19 Response Has Taught Us about the Critical Role of Community Health Workers
For decades, Community Health Workers (CHWs) have been delivering primary health services in hard-to-reach regions of the world. While the terms CHW and Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) have been used interchangeably to mean the same thing, in Kenya, the use of the term ‘volunteer’ means that they are not required to be compensated. This is the case in many other African countries where CHWs or CHVs are not paid for the vital health services they provide to their communities. They should indeed be paid. In 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended that CHWs should be as
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