Aim: Improvement of Maternal Child health care and provision of Primary health care Services of the population under Nariokotome territory through the provision of permanent preventive and curative health services at the dispensaries and Mobile Clinic activities to the villages.
The Nariokotome PHC and Mobile Clinic program consists of four dispensaries; Nariokotome being the main and central dispensary from which all the activities are organised and carried out. There are three other satellite dispensaries at Nachukui along the Lake shore, Kokuselei in the mountain regions and Todonyang right at the Kenyan border with Ethiopia, then the mobile clinic which covers 27 villages per month. The population coverage has been increasing consistently over the years as we respond to requests from villages where the mobile clinic was previously unable to reach which has allowed us to open new outstations. Due to this increase in the number of outstations we now have three parallel mobile clinics, with the primary clinic operating from Nariokotome covering 19 villages throughout the lake region, and then two additional clinics operating from Kokuselei and Todonyang. The mobile outreach from Todonyang works hand in hand with Nariokotome team combining the staff in most of the outreaches due to the large number of people living in villages throughout the lake region.
Project Activities
- Purchase of medicine and necessary equipment for the dispensary and mobile clinic
- Monthly visits from the mobile clinics to each of the 27 villages within Nariokotome Mission territory.
- Regular health talks at the dispensary and school level as well as during every mobile clinic visit, generally on various health and hygiene related topics.
- Seeing approximately 40 to 50 patients daily at each dispensary and mobile clinic except during malaria or other epidemics when the figures would increase.
- Overseeing any medical emergencies as well as transfer to referral hospitals at Lodwar, Kakuma or in some cases Nairobi (Lodwar is 220km from the dispensary, Kakuma is 340km from the dispensary and Nairobi is 1000km).
- Training of staff as well as regular training for Traditional Birth Attendants and Community Health Workers (TBAs and CHWs).
- Maternal and Child Welfare Clinic: Immunisations, Vitamin A administration, Deworming and Growth monitoring including regular tracking of infant nutritional health. As well as providing immunisation to children under five, we also provided immunisation and monthly check-ups with follow up to pregnant mothers.
- Food distribution at the dispensary level as well as during mobile clinic visits to boost the nutritional health of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, the elderly, HIV/AIDS patients as well as anybody else who is particularly vulnerable.
- Distribution of mosquito nets for young children, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, the elderly, and HIV/AIDS patients as malaria preventive measures.
- Carrying out successful emergency health campaigns organised at the national level in conjunction with the Ministry of Health.
- Organising successful annual free Surgical and Ophthalmological camps carried out by visiting Spanish doctors at the Turkana County Referral Hospital at Lodwar, Lokitaung Sub-county hospital and Kakuma mission hospital.
- Continuous running of the HIV/AIDS program to include audio-visual talks at schools, among youth groups, young couples, and women’s groups. Prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) has proven very effective.
- School health services which involve medical check-ups of school children and health education.
- Provision of laboratory services to the community at large from Nariokotome dispensary and during mobile outreaches with special attention and follow up of ante-natal mothers and HIV/AIDS patients.
- Ongoing renovation of the old facility building at Nariokotome dispensary which, when finished, will help improve service delivery as there will be more room available for expansion of services.
- Maintenance of the dispensary facilities as well as repairs of the mobile clinic vehicle.