Obunga slums in Kismu. Photo/browncornerstone
Slum dwellers in Kisumu have hailed a European Union three-year health project in Kisumu city to address maternal and infants’ mortality.
The Sh86 million project being implemented by a consortium of organizations in Nyalenda and Manyatta slums was launched in the lakeside city last year in May.
Janet Okumu, a mother of two, residing in Nyalenda said she was enrolled in the proramme that has now helped in boosting her capacity in regard to family planning issues.
“I have been trained and now I am training other women in the slums. Many women don’t plan their births and with the current economy, it gets difficult bringing up the children.
EU head of Social Affairs and Environment Dr Njaudis Ogendo said the main objective of the project is to increase access to family planning and contraceptive use among women of reproductive age.
“We are building the capacity of health workers capacity to enhance their effectiveness in advancing health care to the slum population.
The health workers are responsible to ensure mothers attend the full antenatal health visits as a way of reducing maternal mortality,” she said.
Ms Okumu is fully convinced that the project upon completion will reverse the worrying statistics of maternal and infant mortality within the slum areas.
“I am urging breastfeeding mothers to maintain feeding their young children on milk for the next six months to help in the growth of their children. These are some of the information being passed to us by the health workers who are training us,” she said.
A nurse at Lumumba Health Centre in Kisumu, Christine Ochome said she is part of a team that was trained for one month under the project on how to handle pregnant mothers from the slum areas.
"Prior to this project, many mothers from the slum areas were only coming for clinics once, some nurses were harsh on them and it is through this training that we have been trained on how to handle them as a way of encouraging them to go for full circle of the clinics," she said.
Ogendo announced that the Kisumu project is part of a wider EU projects in Nairobi and Mombasa informal settlements at a cost of Sh550 million.