2017

The most majestic miracle on earth is giving birth, and such a beautiful experience shouldn’t be a cause of worry and death. My passion was sowed young as a girl when I experienced a horrifying incident back in my village in Embu.

My grandmother, a renowned traditional birth attendant, experienced a complicated labor that led to the death of a friend. The death that could have been avoided if advanced health care was accessible. It was heartbreaking, still is, but from this, I vowed to live my life to correct this inequality.

I am a Registered Community Health Nurse and the current CEO of Mwatate Healthcare Centre, a Level III facility in Mukuru Tassia. My 30 years professional experience has seen me work in disadvantaged communities in Kwale, Taita and Mukuru slums. By concentrating on the often forgotten part of our community, I hope to restore hope and dignity while creating sustainable economic environments through the provision of affordable health. Mwatate Healthcare Centre thus specializes in quality and comprehensive Curative services, Sexual & Reproductive health services, Child welfare clinic and Community Sensitization. We also endeavor to create awareness on social issues affecting the community such as birth planning, growth & nutrition, abandoned children, cancer screening. Thus by reaching out to the mother and child as the core of a family unit, we safeguard multiple generations. In time, I hope to leave a legacy as a lead advocate for provision of world class, affordable and accessible healthcare services in Africa.

Mwatate Healthcare Centre thus specializes in quality and comprehensive Curative services, Sexual & Reproductive health services, Child welfare clinic and Community Sensitization. We also endeavor to create awareness on social issues affecting the community such as birth planning, growth & nutrition, abandoned children, cancer screening. Thus by reaching out to the mother and child as the core of a family unit, we safeguard multiple generations. In time, I hope to leave a legacy as a lead advocate for provision of world class, affordable and accessible healthcare services in Africa.

Lesirwo is a Secondary school in Kipkelion Consituency. We seek a sustainable, community embedded, “trade” not “aid” process of giving the girls that confidence to scale to greater heights in three ways:

We provide a decent platform for the mothers of enrolled students to sell their agricultural goods to willing and well meaning buyers at bid prices with the minimum reserve price set at the local market price (often lower than nairobi price). A woman of purpose holds herself in dignity and pride. By ensuring that the girl has a sanitary towel every month, she knows she is worth it.

Every year in May we invite ladies and men (preferably with roots in the community) to spend the day with students so they not only hear of the great success stories but can see and feel it.
We continuously seek to improve the grades to give the students a better chance of qualifying for government sponsored university and technical college programmes. We therefore instituted a competitive term by term bursary. We are happy to note one of the first recipient of the fund scored A- in the 2016 KCSE examination

We look forward to scaling this initiative to other schools in Kenya.

Mukuhi Karimi was born in 1987. As the first born in her family; she was left with her father after her parents divorced. Her father passed away in a road accident when she was five years old leaving her under the care of her grandmother.

She attended Nguna primary school in the 90’s and Ng’etho high school. After high school, she immediately started hustling as a sales and marketer in various companies. It is here that she got a chance to acquire skills and work in hairdressing and beauty therapy.

She has managed to come up with a company known as Blessing Hair and Beauty College, which started back in 2014 as a small salon based in Kangemi and Kawangware. As a qualified hairdresser and beautician, she has decided to share her knowledge with the youth and young mothers to become self-reliant. At least 80 young members around Kangemi and Kawangware slums have graduated from the college and become bread winners in their families.

My first job after my Diploma in Clinical Medicine and Surgery was at MSF France in Mathare.Mathare slum is known for its high poverty levels, crimes, and violence that render women, girls, and children especially vulnerable.

Working at this Sexual and Gender Based Violence Recovery Centre was the beginning of my journey into GBV activism. Every day, dozens women and girls walked into my clinic deeply traumatized with physical, emotional and psychological abuse.

All this time, I never quite processed this trauma! Many times I went home weighed down and cried myself to sleep. Wanting to help survivors deal with their trauma, and to understand gender dynamics led me to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Counseling Psychology and a Masters in Gender and Developmental studies. I provide empathetic quality clinical care to survivors and ensure they that are able to access justice for the crimes committed against them; I have on many occasions served as an expert witness in court.

I am a mother, wife, and daughter who is self-driven and passionate about promoting the rights of women, men and children affected by Gender Violence, am committed to building the capacity of health care workers to deliver quality post rape care services, and often work as a trainer for the Ministry of Health and the International Peace Training Support Centre in Kenya. I am also a Clinical Management of Rape Consultant for the UNFPA Humanitarian and Context branch deployed in Somalia and South Sudan.

I have been instrumental in developing various Kenya national policy, guidelines, and tools to help standardize post rape care in the country. I am also a co-founder of GenderHealth Africa, an organization that aims to strengthen the capacity of health workers and other actors in GBV programming, psychosocial support and clinical management of rape.