Our safe birth program helps save the lives of mothers and newborns by increasing the number of women who get prenatal and postnatal care and who give birth at the health facility with a skilled birth attendant. In the region of Sega, the rate of maternal and infant deaths are double the national average. Here, roughly 25% of women deliver at home without skilled care which contributes to the high rates of death.
In 2019, goal4.org teamed up with the Rotary organization and the County Ministry of Health on a project that upgrades the public Dispensary (only open during business hours to treat simple ailments) to a 24-hour Health Center with a full maternity ward and services. Rotary funds made the initial, physical improvements to the facility and the Kenyan government has committed to sustaining it going forward – with staffing, furnishings, equipment, and supplies. The construction work was completed in January 2022. Since then, the new maternity has been providing safe deliveries to more mothers and babies than ever before.
The Rotary Club of Vacaville, California has continued to invest in smart projects that provide lasting support for the maternity. The club refurbished the Dispensary’s solar powered water supply and trained a local team to maintain it, and funded a solar system for the maternity wing that protects against an erratic power supply.
The staff at Sega Maternity have committed to building a culture of care, where every woman is treated with dignity and respect. Every staff member, from the gatekeeper to the medical professionals, has taken Respectful Maternity Care training which emphasizes how respectful, patient-centric service is everyone’s job. Mothers participate in an anonymous patient satisfaction survey before being discharged. Their feedback, both positive and negative, is shared with staff to reinforce what they are doing well and help identify areas of improvement.
Janerose is a trained Community Health Volunteer, a counsellor, and a farmer. She joined the Sega health volunteer team in 1988 and is currently responsible for 134 households, going door-to-door with health education and support aimed at preventing common illnesses.
Monica Akinyi Odongo is the head of Sega’s public health facility, Sega Dispensary. She is a registered nurse whose broad responsibilities at the Dispensary include administration of the facility, managing the staff, and treating patients.
Rabin is the nursing officer in charge Sega Dispensary, the only public (free) health facility in Sega. He manages the facility, coordinates all health services, sees patients, and is responsible for community health. He was recruited to Sega to help develop and grow the Dispensary’s maternity service, including promoting the service to mothers in the community. In his past job, at a similar small, rural dispensary, he did just that – improved the maternity services and influenced a shift in the number of women who give birth at the health facility rather than at home. He is a skilled mentor, manager, and communicator.
Albert has worked in education throughout his professional career. He began as a classroom teacher, later rose to the position of headmaster, then Approved Graduate Teacher. He went on to become an inspector of schools in Uganda and Kenya. He was born and raised in western Kenya where now, in retirement, he dedicates his time and skills to supporting local schools and community organizations.
Colm is a technical project manager on Google’s robotics team. Throughout his career, he has specialized in large-scale, multi-national telecommunications projects, in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors. At Inveneo, a non-profit social enterprise that delivers low-powered networks to rural Africa, Colm participated in the post-earthquake response effort in Haiti, supporting the field team as they set up emergency communications for first-responders in the field. Prior to a decade managing non-profit projects, Colm managed global telecommunications projects for Ericsson in Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Botswana, Macau, Canada, and the USA. He helped establish Ericsson’s US presence, building the technical support organization and managing the build-out of Ericsson’s US network.
