HELPING PROVIDE HEALTH CARE IN KENYA

Kilifi Kids brings mHealth to children in Kenya

 

In 2010, the Kilifi Kids organization launched a pilot mHealth initiative to provide low-cost, effective health care to the rural poor near Kilifi, Kenya. The organization received support from the Rotary clubs of Kilifi; Vinings, Georgia, USA; and Charlotte Dilworth South End, North Carolina, USA, as well as financial contributions from other U.S. clubs. (click below to read more)

Kilifi has 73 health clinics, but more than half of the population lives several miles from the closest one, and transportation is not readily available. Only 11 physicians practice for the 720,000 residents in the region. The first phase of the project gave rural health clinics mobile phones and mobile health technology to create a broad, effective mHealth network. In the next two years, Kilifi Kids plans to expand the effort to reach 25,000 children, most of them suffering from malnutrition. The organization works with the Kenyan Ministry of Health and local clinics and hospitals to train health workers and promote the technology to the population. The mHealth project promises to offer a brighter, healthier future for the region’s children, and the organization hopes eventually to expand the network to other parts of Kenya.