WHITE RIBBON ALLIANCE KENYA
In a recent (August 2024) training on self-care for adolescent girls and mothers, the WRA Kenya team went to Kisumu. ‘We trained over 50 midwives on self-care for maternal and newborn health (MNH),’ says Njambi Annrita of WRA Kenya, ‘and linked it to Respectful Maternity Care (RMC) using the RMC Charter. We encouraged them to adopt this approach to deliver quality reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health (RMNAH). Additionally, we provided training on self-care for midwives (Care for Carers).
This was just one of the Self-care initiative which WRA Kenya has recently carried out in eight counties, with support of USAID Momentum, reaching over 200 women and girls.
The team and midwives then visited two underserved rural communities and sensitised over 75 young mothers and girls about self-care in maternal health, and about their rights to RMC.
‘Every mother should feel safe, respected and cared for throughout her pregnancy and birthing journey,’ says Annrita. ‘Our goal at WRA Kenya is making respectful maternal and newborn care a reality for all, especially those in left-behind communities. The highlight of the day was when midwives pledged to treat every mother and newborn with the dignity and respect they deserve, despite the challenges they face in their daily work.’
INCREASING ACCESS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS WITH DISABILITIES
‘If you go to the maternity, all women deliver on the same couch, whether you are disabled or not disabled. Those high couches…when you are not able to climb on that couch, you might deliver on the floor.’ 17-year-old girl in Kenya’s What Women Want (WWW) campaign.
In responding to testimony such as this from his community, one WRA Kenya member, Collins Masinde, 36, has brought about remarkable change for women with disabilities in his home county of Bungoma. As founder and director of Youth for Sustainable Development, Bungoma Chapter (slogan: ‘we are the solutions not problems to be solved’) Collins has been rapidly demolishing barriers to health care.
Women and girls told WRA Kenya that they often can’t use the bathrooms in health facilities because there is no disability-friendly infrastructure. They asked for better access to services and reduced wait times so that after travelling long distances by motorbike they can avoid waiting for hours. In addition, they asked for basic respect and compassion, as they regularly face stigma and discrimination.
Collins has found the White Ribbon Alliance’s ‘ASK, LISTEN, ACT’ approach to be invaluable. ‘We mobilised girls and women, asking about their experiences, listening to their needs. Then we informed them to know their rights, enabled them with knowledge and skills to amplify their voices so that they were empowered to act. Together we advocated for change in Webuye West and Bumula at Subcounty level, and we achieved a lot! We were able to bring about the building of a new health care facility at the Milo Health Centre, and to improve Bumula subcounty hospital, so that both are friendly and accessible to people with disabilities across Bungoma county. This means that pregnant women with disabilities are able to reach these facilities, using the ramps to gain access to the wards, and can get onto the beds for delivery, giving birth with dignity and receiving respectful care.’
These upgrades will benefit 14,000 people with disabilities in Bungoma and Makueni. Since then, says Collins, ‘150 babies have been born at Milo Health Centre, and another 348 at Bumula subcounty hospital. It shows there is power in community knowledge, and empowerment in organising for change.’
Collins has also been promoting digital health for women and girls with disabilities. ‘We successfully advocated at our County Assembly for disability infrastructure, so that instead of people struggling to physically visit their health facilities, they now have access to telemedicine, with a toll-free number for health advice and prescriptions, as well as digital payments via their phones.’
Integral to this work is the advocacy for Respectful Maternity Care which Collins is now working on with WRA Kenya. ‘We take a self-care approach,’ he says, ‘mobilising girls and women with disabilities and informing them of their rights at community hearings and community events. Above all we are enabling them to make their voices heard to demand the services they want. Girls and women here have the power to speak about the challenges affecting them in their health services. Indeed, our main agenda is to empower people to speak for themselves about the health care services they need.’
With all the remarkable changes taking place in Bungoma County there is no doubt that this approach is working. Says Collins, ‘this is pioneering work which fulfils the rights of people with disabilities. And now the Government of Kenya is using these two facilities as models for another facility which they are building elsewhere in Elgon sub county.’
Local women agree.:
‘In the past, we would encounter so many challenges. In most cases, we would not be attended to because we are perceived as not worthy. Nowadays when I get to the facility, I’m assigned someone to take me around until I’m done with my hospital visit. I don’t queue anymore, and the nurses are treating us with respect. As a woman living with disability and expectant, I am hopeful when I come to deliver, I will be treated with dignity.’ Naomi, community member with a visual impairment, Bungoma County.