Community Care Plan

Our Community Care Plan is led by the Kikavu Village Officers and ten local volunteers. Our volunteers, Health Activists, work with the community to educate basic health, nutrition and disease prevention methods. By ensuring these important and basic steps are established in each household we aim to improve overall health and wellbeing. Our Health Activists support and monitor families to reach these goals. Families that action these steps are awarded a Patient Passport at the clinic and will receive free health care and lab testing at the Kikavu clinic. 

7. Any malaria symptoms reported to clinic and treated immediately

8. Plant a fruit tree in the garden with the seeds provided. It is also recommended that families that don't own farms have a vegetable grow bag in their home

9. Each household must have access to a rubbish pit

10. General vaccinations for all children. 

Good nutrition is a basic and important need for overall physical and mental health and immunity yet over 90% of infants are underweight. We are working closely with the community to transform an area of poverty and malnutrition to encourage sustainable fruit and vegetables, improving the nutritional status and quality of life of the local residents. 

Two children standing opposite a garden in Kikavu

Students excitedly holding up their  oranges

Julius, a health activist, proudly standing next to his papaya tree

Fruit Trees

To introduce a more varied diet we have donated seedlings to the community to plant their own orange and papaya trees in their land. The orange tree buds have been grafted to lemon trees to make them sturdier and more likely to grow in the terrain of Kikavu. 

Growbags

We are also introducing the concept of growbags, a versatile and easy to use planting bag for families to grow their own vegetables at home. We will have a supply of local growbags to be donated to families who would like some. We are also growing vegetables in the grounds of the clinic as a demonstrative model and to ensure our staff eat well.

School Farm

Towards the end of 2017 we will be creating a vegetable farm in the school grounds. We aim to better the student’s nutrition in their school lunches to increase wellbeing and provide a daily vitamin intake to boost growth, development and immunity. Additionally, the agricultural experience of maintaining a farm together will be of huge benefit to their futures.

There are many diseases that arise from inadequate water and sanitation, and in line with the United Nations Global Goals we have put a strong importance on goal number 6, “the end of open defecations and adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all”.

By making basic changes in the home families can greatly decrease their risk of disease. The main focus of our Community Care Action Plan is disease prevention and long term improvements to health. 

Constructing a toilet for the family

Washing fruit with clean water

The community helping lay soil for fruit trees at the clinic

Clean Water

Enhancing access to safe drinking water and somewhere to wash their hands, can reduce diseases such as cholera and worms. After some education, families now boil their water to treat it before drinking which has positively impacted the community with a drop in disease break outs.  

Toilets

Access to a toilet ensures better health and prevents disease. Very few families in Kikavu have their own toilet, leaving little option but to openly defecate, causing an increase in the spread of diarrhoeal disease. We are working with the community to change this, and aim to help ensure every household has access to a toilet by 2019.

Rubbish Pits

Safe disposal of waste and rubbish is important to prevent the harvest and spread of bacteria within a household. By introducing household rubbish pits there has been a dramatic reduction in the dumping of refuse into the Karanga river. The village won a special award for cleanliness from the government in August 2016.