Outreach for vital health services in rural Kenya

Merlin Kenya Updates

- 30 health facilities have been supplied with essential drugs & medical consumables mainly for emergency response and preparedness.

- 54,123 beneficiaries were treated for various illnesses in the project supported outreaches according to national guidelines.

- On-the-job training on rational use of drugs and for improving quality of health care is being provided to outreach teams.

- Additional outreach equipment has been procured to ensure quality services are provided. Among items procured and distributed to various outreach teams were: anthropometric tools (30 height boards and 30 weighing scales) for use by the outreach teams in screening and accurate referral of malnourished cases according to the IMAM guidelines, and foldable furniture (15 tables and 15 chairs) to facilitate the teams when providing services in the resource limited settings.

- 2 social mobilizers supported by 4 clinical officers and 4 nurses have been providing psychosocial support to caregivers of severely malnourished children admitted to stabilization centres (SCs).

 - All admissions to SCs, upon discharge are referred to the nearest outpatient sites in the county (OTP) site for continued care. Cases that require specialized care as a result of illnesses are referred to specialized clinics that will provide the necessary care needed. Examples of such clinics are comprehensive care clinics (CCCs) for HIV clients and TB clinics for TB clients.

Turkana Specific Activities

- Merlin facilitated the training of 35 DHMT members, 15 CHEWs and 100 CHWs from the 3 supported districts on community strategy. This led to establishment of 2 community units in Loima and Turkana South Districts. The trainings were conducted according to the MOH curriculum.

- Merlin participated in mass distribution of azithromycin, for prevention of trachoma, which is on the increase.

Kisii Specific Activities

- Contract signed with CARE/CDC for continuation of HIV/AIDS project through Sep 2013.

- During the past quarter, 10 new facilities initiated ART services in Kisii facilities, bringing decentralization to 44 of 49 Merlin-supported facilities.

- The HIV testing and counseling (HTC) project in Kisii changed its strategy from community outreach to workplaces, necessitated by need to reach tea factory workers: 637 workers at 4 factories were tested for HIV, with 11 testing positive (1.7%).

Each week Merlin teams from all over the world, report back to HQ.  Our team in Kenya is based in the capital Nairobi, and there is also a sub-office in Kisii (in the west of the country.) This is an abridged version of the most recent update (week 36) from our team in Kenya :

Turkana Activities

Health, Nutrition and WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Program

• Community health workers were selected from the Lokitaung local community to be part of health training in September.
• Hygiene promotion lessons were given on hand washing and how households should use aqua tabs to purify water.
• Merlin’s WASH officer conducted an assessment of Lochor emoit, Lochwa and Lokichar health centers, to check the status of WASH facilities ahead of the planned renovations.
• 42 health and nutrition sessions took place in permanent clinics or as part of the outreach clinics program.

Safe Motherhood Project

• Safe motherhood activities were implemented in 4 outreach sites – 2 in both Lokichar and Lodwar.
• 9 health education sessions were conducted to over 900 people, with health messaging on family planning, nutrition, causes and prevention of malaria, prevention of anemia in pregnancy, danger signs during delivery and hygiene promotion.

Disability Project

• 30 health workers from Turkana were selected to be trained on how to identify and offer services to disabled community members.
• Merlin’s disability project officer took part in further training in Lodwar, learning about how to care for disabled people within the community.

Kisii Activities

HIV testing and counselling (HTC)

• The mobile HTC activities were assessed; at from September workplaces - primarily tea factories will be targeted, where the assessments identified a need. Negotiations have commenced on actual service delivery and how that will fit into the schedule of the factories and factory workers.
• 2 youth outreach events took place.  60 youths participated in behavior change messages geared toward encouraging the participants to adopt safer sex practices alongside seeking HTC services as an entry point to HIV prevention, care and treatment.

HIV Project - Chagua Maisha

Chagua Maisha (offering HIV prevention services to the community, including prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV, in partnership with Care) year 2 is winding up on September 29, and the finishing touches are being made to ensure that the work-plan for year 3 has been completed.

Other

• Drugs and medicine supplies were delivered to ten health clinics.
• Painting of pediatric and general wards in four health facilities (Nduru, Iyabe district hospitals, and Etago sub-district hospital) are 95% complete. Redecoration of the local hospital is also complete and the installation of children’s play equipment continues.
• The maternity clinic in Etago in has now been completely renovated, ready for the hand-over to the Ministry of Health later in the year. A final report is being prepared.
• Children’s’ drawing and art books have been delivered to the Merlin office and will be distributed to clinics shortly.
• 32 health and nutrition education sessions were conducted for more than 2600 people.
• Data collection from health facilities continues and data entry for August HIV/ TB and Malaria data continues, 72.5% reports have been updated.

 Merlin can only continue to do all these and new health activities because of your support.  Thank you.

Links:

• Read more about Merlin's work in Kenya