Established as a grassroots response to health disparities facing mothers and children in Kenya, Lwala Community Alliance is working to address interrelated crises of maternal mortality and HIV. As part of its Global Health Initiative (GHI), SNF is providing support for Lwala to expand its community-led health delivery model across five rural counties in the country.
This model, and the steps Lwala is taking with SNF support, reflect a deep-seated commitment to the strength of bottom-up change and decision-making. The organization will continue to empower community health workers, the eyes and ears of the health system who are often the first to spot danger, as professionals who are trained and supervised, paid for their work, and properly equipped with the skills and resources they need to provide good care. It will support the community health committees which have the best sense of real health needs in the local context and how their neighbors might be most receptive to having them met. Further, training on topics like neonatal resuscitation and obstetric hemorrhaging helps ensure that local health facilities are prepared to respond to emergencies.
In three of the five target counties, Migori, Homabay, and Baringo, Lwala will be deepening and reinforcing its existing work; the other two are new counties in which Lwala is establishing a presence for the first time. Mothers and children newly reached by the program will, it is hoped, experience similar improvements in outcomes to those seen so far, including a 64% reduction in child mortality, the vast majority of mothers giving birth in health facilities, and a threefold increase in contraceptive use.