A local health organisation, K-MET, has embarked on a community conversation programme as a way of engaging members of the community in identifying problems facing them and their solutions.
According to the organisation’s Reproductive Health Coordinator Caroline Nyandat, they have decided to embark on this kind of approach in helping communities to ensure sustainability of projects.
She regretted that in the past, most donor-funded projects ended up collapsing after the withdrawal of donors, simply because the communities were not involved at the initial stages of the project.
“You will find most projects that have been initiated by different organisations collapse immediately the donors hand them to the locals, it is because people are not involved from the initial stages,” said Nyandat.
Speaking in Kisumu, Nyandat stated that they are conducting this programme under their ‘Tetea uzazi salama’ project, which focuses on maternal health interventions.
Nyandat further stated that in the project, they intend to link the community and health facilities to ensure they realize the need to go to the facility to get maternal health care.