Health Update - Community Outreaches and More

Over the past month MWCT's Health program has held some extremely successful community outreaches and presentations, reaching several hundred community members.  These talks have covered a wide range of topics, including the advantages of giving birth in health facilities, HIV/AIDS, women's and prostate cancer, and family planning, among others.  Although the Trust is based near Iltilal and the primary clinic is located there, these outreaches allow us to contact Maasai from all parts of Kuku Group Ranch and give them valuable information about their health and the services we offer.

Lena shows the women of Kuku village important health facts during a Community Outreach.

Our Community Health Workers have played extremely important roles in these outreaches.  A recent Kuku outreach saw more than 100 attendees, largely due to CHWs promoting and publicizing it and reaching out to individual households and bomas to boost attendance.  In early September we also held a forum for Traditional Birth Attendants in Kuku village.  Although the village is located 16 kilometres from the Iltilal Health Center, we stressed the benefits of a birth plan and encouraged the women to stay with friends or family close to Iltilal as they neared their delivery dates.

Eddie and our Community Health Workers also help with the outreaches across Kuku Group Ranch

And later in September, Lena traveled with district health nurse Mr. Wilson Chesum to the Kimana Health Centre, another facility in our district.  The visit enabled the Trust to observe the activities and methods there and learn best practices to bring back and make our health facilities even better to best serve the Maasai community.  It's been an exciting time recently, and we hope to keep reaching more patients, learning, and improving every day!

Kanzi Academy Excursion

The students approach a hill called Longido, our destination.

Time for a quick Education update!  Last Sunday the sixth-grade class at Kanzi Academy went for a hike in the savanna surrounding the school.  Located on the grounds of Campi ya Kanzi, the Academy is a private boarding school for gifted Maasai students operated by the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust.  Because the students come from all over Kuku Group Ranch, they board at the camp and often do fun learning enrichment activities over the weekend.  On this particular day, the sixth-grade class set out for a walk, accompanied by Kanzi Academy's four teachers and a trained Maasai tracker.

Kanzi Academy's sixth-grade class enjoys the view atop the outcropping.

During the game walk the students had the opportunity to apply lessons learned in their classes during the week, identifying animal tracks and scat, spotting wildlife including zebras, gazelles, and giraffe, and practicing their English in conversation with the teachers and each other.  Upon arriving at Longido, the local hill that was the destination of our hike, we climbed to the top and enjoyed the stunning views of the Kuku Plain unfolding before us.  In the end it was a highly successful walk with great views and good exercise, and we hope to continue with this sort of outside-the-classroom educational initiative in the coming weeks and months.

A student smiles for the camera on the granite rock.

Looking for Kanzi Academy Teachers!

MWCT is looking for primary school teachers for its gifted school, Kanzi Academy, which educates Maasai children along with Luca and Antonella's children.  The school is located at Campi ya Kanzi, in front of Kilimanjaro, and offers an incredible experience in the gorgeous Kenyan countryside.  Passionate teachers interested in a great adventure should contact Antonella at antonella@maasai.com for more information!

The school children of Kanzi Academy want you to come teach them!

Health Program Update - Cancer Screening Successes

Today we write with an update on the Health Program's recent Cervical Cancer Screening Campaign.   As you may recall, our nurses were recently trained to administer the test, meaning that they can do so at any time.  However, to celebrate this milestone and reach as many women as possible, on September 21st we publicized and held a Screening Day in which we tried to get as many attendees from the surrounding communities as possible.  We also brought in two additional nurses from out of town to handle the expected load, and to help explain the testing process, the benefits of frequent testing, and the greatly increased survival rate with early detection.

Women attending the cancer screening session listen to the directions of the nurses.

The end result was a great success, as we had 34 women from Iltilal, Langata, and other surrounding bomas and villages make the trip to the Iltilal clinic for testing.  And because the clinic is now equipped to test at any time, we have tested a steady stream of women in the successive days.  Additionally, the screening launch allowed us to expand access to our long-term family planning program, with 6 new enrollments.  Following the success of this screening day, we hope to implement similar programs in the other three clinics on Kuku Group Ranch.  Efforts like this show how receptive the Maasai are to these efforts to improve their health and living conditions if we present them the right way.  Time to get back to work!

The Community Health Workers and district health personnel after a successful day at the clinic.

Health Program Update - Community Health Workers

One main outreach of the Health Program is its use of the a network of Community Health Workers (CHWs) to reach all members of the local Maasai community.  These are villagers and citizens who volunteer their time to help the community and are each responsible for a portion of the households in their area, making sure these households have access to the latest updates from the health clinic and follow up regularly with any recommended treatment.  The key to successful outreach by the CHWs is training; this is especially crucial for our planned community-wide survey.

In late July and early August a volunteer from Boston came and stayed with the MWCT, working with us to develop a visual training system for Community Health Workers and beginning the training modules with the CHWs in Iltilal.  Our goal is to train all CHWs on the Group Ranch; the Iltilal CHWs have already completed this process.

The Iltilal Community Health Workers gather for a training session.

The next step in surveying the local community and beginning this outreach is determining which CHWs are responsible for specific parts of the village and making sure no households are missed.  This was the work of this past week, when we met with the CHWs, sat down with maps and Google Earth, and started the work of mapping the village of Iltilal.  It turned out to be an incredibly successful day - we identified nearly all the bomas and households in the village, and the CHWs really enjoyed the mapping process.

This also gave us by far the most accurate Iltilal population estimate since the 2009 census, which we knew was no longer accurate following the extended drought since that time.   The final rough count was 304 households, which equates to roughly 2400 residents.  Furthermore, we were able to identify gaps in coverage by CHWs, and see where we needed to train more to better accommodate the needs of Iltilal.  This process is ongoing, but we've very happy with the recent results!