When we started sponsoring clinics more than ten years ago, we shared the goal of making high-quality maternity care accessible for all pregnant people in Nakuru County. Together with our partners The Nathan Hall Williams Center and the Kenyan government, we’re achieving that and so much more. There are now more than eight public maternity hospitals in Nakuru County alone, and the level of technology and quality of care continues to rise rapidly. Medical imaging equipment has historically been available in private hospitals and larger referral hospitals, making accessibility limited. The high cost of imaging has also been a significant barrier to care for many. Nakuru County is changing this by rolling out routine point-of-care ultrasounds (POCUS) at community-based maternity hospitals and clinics. Women will soon be able to routinely receive at least two POCUS scans, with the first ideally occurring before the 24th week of pregnancy. POCUS scans give healthcare providers useful information in real-time that they can use to increase the accuracy of their bedside assessments and better manage the course of pregnancy for their patients.

This month, we focused our capacity building for healthcare workers on the use of POCUS machines and the application of that knowledge for patient care. Healthcare workers from Mirugi Kariuki and Nairobi Women’s Hospital will begin using their knowledge and skills to serve their communities, helping to reduce the rates of neonatal and maternal morbidity and mortality across the county. Thank you for your generous support over the years. For those of you who have been a part of our health projects in Kenya since the beginning, look how far we’ve come!