HEALTH
Good health is a foundational element of life quality. In sickness, little else
matters, but in good health it is possible to find the energy, mindset,
and hope to work hard for a brighter future.
Family Care helps families to prevent illness, access care, and lead a healthy life.
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HOW WE SUPPORT FAMILIES IN
HEALTH
HELP BUYING INSURANCE OR PAYING FOR CRITICAL CARE
Families are guided with insurance registration, and sometimes assisted with payment.
Families' individual Family Care budgets can also be used to fund treatment or medicine.
FREE COMMUNITY HEALTH CAMPS
UKR partners with local hospitals and a University Optometry Department to run free health and vision camps, for the families we serve and also for their larger community.
In the past few years, free clinics in the communities where we work have helped thousands access vision care, including free eyeglasses for many, and also medical screening for conditions like diabetes and hypertension.
W.A.S.H. EDUCATION, LATRINES, MOSQUITO NETS, AND CLEAN WATER
To promote wellness and health, Family Care offers training on topics like hygiene malaria prevention, sexual & reproductive health, and nutrition.
To help more of that knowledge become part of daily life, our program also helps families build pit latrines, and provides them with mosquito nets, water storage tanks, filters, and farm resources for growing healthy food.
COUNSELLING, DIRECT CARE, AND PARTNERSHIPS
Workshops and individual counseling for a healthy lifestyle, on topics like nutrition, domestic violence, vaccinations, family planning, and more.
Direct medical intervention addressing chigoe fleas, which need to be physically plucked - one by one - from feet and hands. Partner organizations have often helped, and many UKR staff are now qualified to do this themselves.
Families with specific disabilities or conditions, such as the blind or those living with HIV or Sickle Cell disease, are often linked with partner organizations specialized in serving them.
The challenge
Modern medicine for most Kenyans was introduced through religious mission hospitals in the colonial era. Many more healthcare facilities mushroomed in the decades following independence. Clinics and hospitals, both public and private, are everywhere in western Kenya. They are often bare-bones, but still relatively accessible.
But a culture of seeking clinical care for illnesses - let alone for checkups - never surged into rural villages. Rumors and conspiracies still carry power in many cases, and a doctor is someone to see only when things get really bad.
Mostly, people believe in modern medicine but shy away from it. Encouragement is needed to face the costs, bureaucracy, and goose-chasing. Few people think of signing up for public health insurance until treatment is urgent and the waiting period unacceptable. Those with chronic conditions often fear navigating care, and need a hand to hold.
As well, information on prevention and healthy living does not easily reach rural households. At its extreme, this leads to cases like Vitamin A deficiency damaging children's eyes, resolved through eating more fruits and vegetables that can be grown at home.
UKR often assists highly vulnerable families with histories of regular or undiagnosed illness, serious conditions like HIV, unaccommodated disabilities, or malnutrition.
Our process of selecting families in moments of need means we walk with many people living with critical health needs. These often include:
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Untreated or undiagnosed conditions, ranging from mental health issues, to common chronic conditions, to severe matters like goiter, chigoe fleas, fistula, Sickle Cell, or even sepsis
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Lack of knowledge or funds for a healthy lifestyle, like balanced nutrition or seeking care before a problem is severe
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High incidence of malaria, water-borne diseases, and other preventable illnesses
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Limited & contaminated drinking water
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Lack of insurance or funds for medical care - and/or lack money for bus fare to the hospital
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For family members living with HIV, budget cuts from international donors that make access to free or affordable ARV treatment increasingly difficult
Strengths that families can leverage
We work to help families to overcome barriers to good health, and they arrive to the program with strengths and situational assets that make addressing medical challenges more manageable. The common strengths and assets families can leverage in this area include:
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For those with conditions already affecting their lives negatively, a desire to feel better (and much more strongly, parents' universal desire for children to be healthy and well)
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Expansive network of public hospitals and clinics, with the most basic care often located within a few miles of families' homes
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Low-cost $4/month public health insurance is available, with plenty of problems for enrollees but far better than nothing
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A good climate and a rural culture of subsistence farming, that make it possible for a family to produce their own balanced, fresh, and healthy diet
Our holistic approach to this complex problem
We provide training on nutrition, hygiene, and disease prevention while supplying families with resources to effect their knowledge (like mosquito nets, water filters, and an entire agriculture program to grow more healthy food).
UKR assists its families with immediate health issues, including accessing and affording care or treatment, while also directly addressing chigoe fleas and linking vulnerable subgroups with support organizations.
And partly beyond Family Care, we organize free medical screening camps for the wider communities we serve, through partnerships with local hospitals and universities who provide qualified medical personnel.
This comprehensive effort aims for a sustainable improvement in health and well-being for everyone in our program - and more.
Before, my children often fell sick and I didn’t know the cause. Now,with a water filter and proper hygiene trainings,their health has improved and I no longer worry about them drinking unsafe water.
Margaret UKR mother
