By Nola Paterni | Communications Officer
Off the smooth Nairobi-Meru highway, at the busy Karaba Trading Centre and Market, begins the rough and dusty road to Mbonzuki Dispensary. The temperatures are high and the wind is gusty. Come the rainy season, the road becomes impassable except by foot or heavily levied motorbike.
Pauline is one of the two health workers who run the facility and provide health care for Mbonzuki Village, a very remote part of Kenya’s Embu County. Pauline is a registered community health nurse who provides family planning services, immunizations, prescribes and dispenses medications, delivers babies, and oversees the facility’s comprehensive care center helping HIV-positive clients and counseling them on the importance of taking their antiretroviral drugs. Before Pauline came to Mbonzuki the dispensary just had one employee—Paul—who cared for a population of about 10,000 by himself.
Kenya has a serious shortage of health workers. There is only 1 doctor, nurse, or midwife for every 1,000 people, less than half the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization. The deficit is even worse in hard-to-reach areas like Mbonzuki Village since most health workers prefer to live and work in urban areas.
“It’s tough here,” says Pauline. She puts in long hours, sometimes six days a week, and cares for up to 70 clients a day. The facility lacks electricity and piped water. There’s a shortage of essential medicines and equipment. Plus, Pauline’s four-year-old daughter is due to start school soon. “With no kindergarten school in the village, it’s a difficult situation. My passion for community health nursing and my responsibility as a parent is a dilemma I’m struggling with.” Nonetheless, Pauline remains upbeat about her work and strives to keep the villagers’ hope of better health care down the road alive.
IntraHealth International has been helping Kenya strengthening the country’s systems to train, manage, recruit, post, and retain a high-quality and equitably distributed health workforce, but there are still not enough workers like Pauline and Paul to make high-quality services available to everyone. Continued support for projects like the Afya Elimu fund will help close the gap between the number of health workers needed and the number actually on the ground.
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