Why Do We Work in Kenya?

Maternal health indicators remain at unacceptably poor levels in Kenya. Fistula is prevalent here, because the majority of women deliver at home, without a skilled birth attendant and the country lacks adequate maternal health services — and particularly emergency obstetric care for its citizens. Also, in Kenya, hundreds of thousands of people are living in several refugee camps in Dadaab, most of them from neighboring Somalia following drought and long-term conflict in that country. Considered to be one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world, the camps are stretched to their limits. Refugees are coming here from a highly insecure region where the healthcare infrastructure has been disrupted for decades. And a significant number of these refugee women are in need of fistula repair surgery.

What You Help Us Do in Kenya

We're helping fund:

• Fistula surgeries
• Outreach (patient recruitment)

Where:
Nyanza Provincial General Hospital, Kisumu
Several refugee camps in Dadaab
Gynocare Fistula Centre, Eldoret

How much funding have we granted?
Gynocare Fistula Centre, Eldoret: $140,500 in FY2011
Dadaab refugee camp project: $50,000 in FY2011
Nyanza Provincial Hospital: $105,000 in FY2011
Nyanza Provincial Hospital: $125,000 in FY2010

Who's our partner?
We partner with Direct Relief International to support fistula treatment at Nyanza Provincial General Hospital.
We partner with Women and Health Alliance International to support fistula surgery for Somali refugees in Dadaab's refugee camps.
We partner with One by One to provide treatment and outreach at Gynocare Fistula Centre.

How will this help women in Kenya?
The Nyanza Hospital is a sizeable facility (467 beds) providing care to a large catchment area. This established, respected Hospital team is eager to increase the number of fistula patients it can treat. Not only are we funding fistula surgeries here, we're also helping by supporting an extensive patient recruitment and outreach effort.

The Dadaab refugee camps are being stretched to their limits. And the number of asylum-seekers continues to grow, with an estimated 5,000 refugees arriving each week since June 2011 compared to half as many during the spring. Our WAHA colleagues are there on the ground, overseeing a comprehensive project to provide quality maternal healthcare to the refugees and also the local population. Our grant is helping fund the project's fistula surgery costs. The very exhausted refugee women in these camps will no longer be required to travel to Nairobi for fistula treatment — a hospital site that is more than 250 miles away. During the first year of funding, an estimated 100 women suffering from fistula will receive treatment.

One by One is seeking to implement a partnership project that will introduce comprehensive fistula treatment elements as well as fistula prevention programming. Girls and women with fistula tend to live in isolation with little access to information about what is wrong with them and are often unaware that free treatment is available. One by One will connect with them and provide them with the care that will transform their lives.