Kenya: Lwala Healthcare Project

Family Planning

Lwala Community Alliance Participates in the 2013 International Conference on Family Planning in Ethiopia

In November, over 3,300 delegates from 120 countries traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to attend the 2013 International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP). This year’s theme was “Full Access, Full Choice.” Lwala Community Alliance’s Kenya Deputy Program Director Mercy Owuor represented Lwala with a poster presentation titled, “Nearing 100%- Successfully generating demand for maternal and reproductive health services in Migori County, Kenya.” The presentation focused on Lwala’s maternal and child health program, which trains traditional birth attendants and community members as Community Health Workers (CHWs). Lwala’s CHWs have proved to be an effective strategy for increasing the uptake of skilled birth attendance and family planning.

Additionally, Lwala was featured in a recent Girls’ Globe article for ICFP titled: Family Planning: 3 Barriers Only Women Understand. In the article, Ash Rogers of partner organization Segal Family Foundation writes, “Lwala has integrated family planning throughout their hospital with family planning services available at every intake point […] 62 community health workers counsel women in their own homes, dispel common myths on sexual and reproductive health, and help women find the method that works for them. Lwala also [targets] youth with family planning education and information on available services. Since these programs began, Lwala has seen an increase in the average number of monthly family planning visits from 93 to 150. And, despite widely believed myths in the community about long-term methods (implants and IUDs), the number of women receiving long-term methods has more than doubled in the last 6 months.”

Finally, Lwala Deputy Program Director Mercy Owuor wrote a blog in response to her participation in the conference that can also be read on the Girls’ Globe website at http://girlsglobe.org/2013/11/23/3-lessons-for-kenya-from-the-international-conference-on-family-planning/.

We are grateful for the chance to share our lessons on the ground to further access to successful family planning.

Marceline Auma

Marceline Auma smiles as she holds her newborn baby during a postnatal visit at the Lwala Community Hospital. After her one previous pregnancy, her child succumbed to common childhood diseases and infections soon after birth. But this 23-year-old mother is not worried about the survival of the latest addition to her family because, for the first time, she delivered at a health facility with the help of skilled birth attendants who gave both mother and son full treatment and information to promote health.

Like many mothers in Nyanza, Marceline chose to give birth at the hospital after community health workers visited and educated her on the benefits of skilled delivery. According to Sheila Odongo, a community health worker, the high cost of maternity services and traditional beliefs on childbirth have for a long time limited the number of rural women who deliver at health centers. “Most of them give birth at home with the help of traditional birth attendants who are not equipped to deal with birth complications or provide babies with much needed vaccinations,” Sheila added. This has led to a higher incidence of child and maternal mortality especially in this region.

Economic Development through Agricultural Training

In Lwala, sugar cane is the primary cash crop and often one of the only viable sources of income for young men and women between the ages of 20 and 35. Low supply of sugar cane in the area has increased competition among the distributors, including young women who sometimes struggle to secure even a day’s supply and who often resort to risky sexual behavior to earn a living wage.

“Before we were completely dependent upon jaggery (unrefined sugar) production, which is in decline, but now I can feed my family without the sugar cane.” Beldine, a young mother and wife, is quick to express pride that she contributes to her family’s well-being. With the help of partner Development in Gardening (DIG), Beldine is growing local vegetables to supplement the wages of her husband, a machine operator at the milling site.

Rose, a 31-year-old mother and a wife, also grows vegetables. Her husband struggles to earn livable wages from the sugar cane milling sites to feed their family, but now he hopes to learn more about growing vegetables from his wife. “She is a good teacher,” he says.

Beldine and Rose both married into jugglery production families that are struggling to survive due to decreasing supplies of sugar cane to the millers in the area. Now, they both are members of a farmers group that was implemented by DIG in the Lwala community. They have learned the basic skills in local vegetable production and have received vegetable seeds from DIG through a cost-sharing model.

Lwala Community Alliance’s partnership with DIG aims to empower young men and women through economic and marketplace development. DIG has facilitated access to business skills training, financial literacy, and technical training in organic vegetable production. Both Beldine and Rose are optimistic about their futures. As Beldine says

“I believe I will be successful. I can feed my family and now avoid the abuse found with the sugar cane industry.”