East Africa: Region Benefits from EU’s US$4 5.4 Million Support for AMREF’s Projects
By Ben Omondi
NAIROBI---Maternal, newborn and child health services in the region have received a boost following a grant of US $ 5.4 million from the European Union (EU) to support African Medical and Research Foundation’s (AMREF’s) projects in Eastern African region.
The funds are to support AMREF’s maternal, newborn and child health provision efforts in Kenya, Tanzania and Southern Sudan and are aimed to strengthen the target communities’ capacity to improve maternal, newborn and child health in hardship areas.
First to benefit from the funds is Kenya which has already launched two projects that have been funded through the partnership. One of the maternal and child health projects to receive the funds is based in Lamu in Kenya’s coastal region while the other is the Makueni and Kitui North maternal and child health project in Makindu region of Eastern Kenya.
The Makindu project, which includes support to a local dispensary and funded by the EU to the tune of US $ 975,000 (Kshs 78 million), is set to last for period of three years. It is a partnership that involves AMREF, Christian Health Association of Kenya (CHAK) as well as Kenya’s ministry of public health and sanitation.
The project, targeted to benefit over 27,000 women of reproductive age and enable a further 25,000 children under five years to access health care services, aims to increase antenatal care and family planning services and improve immunization services for children.
According to Kenya’s Ministry of Planning, the two districts of the project – Makueni and Kitui – are among the poorest in the country with 56 per cent of the population living in absolute poverty. The Ministry of Health estimates the areas’ infant mortality ratio to be about 96 for every 1,000 live births while the maternal mortality ratio is estimated to be about 424 for every 100,000 live births which is higher than the national average.
The area also suffers from poor access to maternal health facilities as 85 per cent of births are conducted at home while obstetric care services are unavailable in most of the rural health centres.
Speaking during the launch of the Makindu health project, Ambassador Eric van der Linden, the European Union’s head of delegation to Kenya, said that the EU support is meant to strengthen healthcare provision at the level of maternity care facilities.
“The support is in recognition of the need to reduce maternal and child deaths which are key to the realisation of both social and economic development and also form part of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)”, said Amb Van der Linden.
There are various UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which are specifically targeted to address health challenges. These include MDG 4 which calls for the need to reduce child mortality; MDG 5 which emphasizes the need to improve maternal health and MDG 6 which is a clarion call for the world to step up efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases by 2015.
Amb Van der Linden noted that data collected by community health workers in the area shows that less than 25 per cent of women in the focus area use and access family planning services, adding that there is need for concerted efforts and even involvement of husbands to encourage their partners to get family planning services.
Ms Mette Kjaer, the AMREF Kenya country director said that the programme, which focuses on health of children under 5 years and young women to ensure they are informed about maternal health and safe delivery, is to be implemented in areas with lowest health indicators and high poverty levels.
“The programme aims to improve the health of women and children by working through community health workers who then act as the link between health centres and community members,” said Ms Kjaer.
The AMREF Kenya boss said that the Makindu project would work with water committees in the area in a bid to integrate water and sanitation issues with maternal health as “one can not hope to address the issue of health without first thinking about water and sanitation.”