Unfortunately, to many women in rural Kenya, pregnancy and child bearing is a life-threatening experience. The Safaricom Foundation has come to the aid of Turkana women with a grant of 1.8 million Kenya shillings to put up maternity units in a health center, enabling the women to access maternal care.
The women live in remote rural areas far away from good health care and often reach hospitals too late causing serious and permanent health problems for themselves and their child. Antenatal services are not offered and many women give birth in the community. There have been maternal deaths following retained placenta, postpartum hemorrhage (bleeding), post delivery infections among other causes including socio-cultural and economic factors. There is no antenatal follow up at the existing mainly run down clinics/ dispensaries especially the ones run by a patient attendant, while the Traditional Birth Attendants are few and mostly elderly.
Safaricom Foundation has heard the cry of the Turkana womenfolk, and come to their aid with a grant of KES 1.8M to put up maternity units as an extension of a health center enabling the women access maternal care.
Making motherhood safe is urgent, critical and wise as we need mothers alive and healthy. No country can attain optimum development without healthy mothers to nurture their babies and educate their children to contribute positively to National Development. While having a maternal facility does not solve all maternal health issues, Safaricom Foundation has contributed greatly and it is a BIG STEP in achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 of improving maternal Health.
