Kwale residents in bid to reduce infant mortality

Anreah Ngome lost his wife and twins in 2010 after she experienced complications during birth.

They could not reach hospital on time in that fateful night, and the traditional birth attendant could do little to save her life.

“It was at 2 am when my wife started experiencing pains, I walked to the road to look for a taxi, but upon arrival to the hospital she had had already died,” he told Citizen Digital.

This was the shock that triggered women in Mwazaro Village, in Lungalunga Sub-County to come up with an outreach program under the Muungano Community Health Workers group.

The outreach program that is carried out in a makeshift structure and under a tree in the village is aimed at saving more lives in the area.

“We saw it is a loss for our women to die because of lack of hospitals and awareness,” said Biny Kemunto, a volunteer community health worker in the village.

She added that the organization does immunization, growth monitoring and sensitization of pregnant women on nutrition and the need to give birth in hospitals.

The initiative has yielded fruits after the Kenya Coastal Development Program (KCDP) supported the women in building a dispensary adjacent to the makeshift structure.

The building will be furnished and equipped before it is ready for use at the end of the year.

KCDP program manager said that after installation of equipment and facilities, the county government would station personnel at the dispensary.