After
a year of hard work, last month nurses and patients moved into the out-patients department of the
new Health Centre. Whilst work continues to finish the conversion of the old
buildings into staff accommodation, landscaping, and finishing touches to the
Community Health Workers Building and Youth Friendly Centre, we are proud to
have finished work on a very high quality 24 bed hospital. We are currently beginning the equipping of
the In-Patient building. The facility comprises three wards,
a maternity unit, a large operating theatre, X-ray room, doctor’s accommodation, laboratory, out-patients wing and reception building. This ‘cottage’
hospital would not look out of place in a small European town (well - perhaps
rather more open ventilation!), and the building team have surpassed themselves
in the quality of the finishes. The roof
has been designed for maximum water catchment with large holding tanks, whilst
the pipeline from the newly sunk borehole should ensure the water supply during
drought.
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| Reception building with Out Patients to the left and services to the right |
This
has been a long and challenging process made possible through the belief and
dedication of the donor and of an enthusiastic community. This is a government
facility built on government land, made possible entirely through private
funding. As such we spent almost a year working with the GOK health
department, and the community, before we could begin construction.
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| In-Patient building |
We
are aware that this is only Phase One of the process: the year ahead will
be equally challenging as the government
works with us to meet its partnership
commitments to post new staff and we
work on more private partnerships to train and support the new team so that we
can grow into this facility.
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| Cleaning Day in March! |
A
prime focus will be to drastically reduce maternal and infant mortality by
having mothers access pre and post natal care, as well as increasing access to
hospital deliveries. The multiple
factors of female circumcision, poor nutrition, diseases of poverty and teenage
pregnancies mean that childbirth is the leading cause of death for pastoralist
women – as many as 1 in 40 women will die in childbirth - something that should not be seen by any of us
as acceptable in the Twenty-First century.
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| The Pharmacy |
Enormous
thanks to all who have made this journey possible so far - (with the risk of
sounding like an awards ceremony speech) our thanks go to: our wonderful donor,
the Management and Liaison committees,
the DPHN and her team, the DPWO,
the Community Health Workers, all the
local Chiefs and community leaders, the Builders and their Sterling Crew of
workers... and the Wider Community who have lent their voices of support. … and
EVERYONE who has had added enthusiasm along the way.
We now continue to work together to improve the health of the whole
community. The NHP team of CHWs starts today their final training to make them a fully fledged Community Health Unit.
The
future of community healthcare begins today.
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| .....And a wonderful nurse! |
