Medical camp for mukuru kwa njenga slums

The PROJECT is located in MUKURU KWA NJENGA slums in Embakasi constituency Nairobi-Kenya , which has a population projection of over 100,000 person with most of them being unemployed and living below a dollar a day. These slums have a high rate of HIV infection which stands compared to the national rate of 6.7% HIV infection rate.

The initiative was started as a result of limited access to healthcare as the slums is covered by minimal health facility, and with health facility being Mukuru community dispensary started in 1995 by the Medical Missionaries of Mary and Mukuru Health Centre recently launched by the county government of Nairobi as part of county efforts to improve health sector and is the only medical centre that offers maternity care and general health care. The hospital is staffed with two clinical officers(physician assistant) and 11 nurses which is overwhelming comparing to the population,hence limited access to the population who can not afford private medical services let alone get an insurance cover.

The project concept drafted after a survey that was conducted in 2007/2009 by Mukuru community dispensary with the objective being to assess health services delivery and disease patterns in order to identify service gaps and came up with a notable finding of high morbidity especially respiratory illness which is partially attributed to the indoor air quality a characteristic of slum dwelling. Another notable finding was an increase to new antenatal HIV infection rate from year 2007 at 2,401 mothers compared to 3,531 mothers year 2008 so this showed there was urgency to establish intervention measures to both curb the spread of infectious disease as well as manage preventable infection for low income urban dwellers. We saw the need to introduce free medical camps as to diagnose new HIV/TB infection and also it would be a forum to conduct community awareness of health issue affecting them and how to mitigate them.

This project is a short term solution to mitigate current health issue in the community as we look to develop long term lasting solution to health issue.

The beneficiaries of this project are mostly pregnant women and children especially the under 5yrs as this are the risk groups.

This campaign looks to help achieve millennium development goals of reduced child mortality and morbidity,free maternal health care and reduction of HIV/AIDS infections in the community.

Here are some of the photos showing the debilitating condition that the communities lives in

.

photos of us after a recent medical awareness

your support toward this noble course will be highly appreciated,thanks you in advance for your contribution and support.