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A Letter from our Founder and Executive Director
Dear friends and supporters:
2016 was an exciting year for 2020 MicroClinic. We received several grants and awards, opened the Nairobi office, hired staff, increased baby clothing production, and established new corporate partnerships. Most importantly, we helped thousands of Kenyan mothers and babies access quality health care. With the support of the Pfizer Foundation, the GSK/Save the Children partnership, and so many of you – our donors and volunteers – we have led an enormously successful expansion into Kakamega County in western Kenya (population about 2 million), home of the crying stone in Elesi, the preserved ancient Wanga Kingdom in Mumias, the sugar mills, and annual bullfight. We are now serving about 600 women for prenatal care, postnatal care, and childbirth each month.
As our program reaches more and more mothers, we are inspired and motivated by the stories we hear about Operation Karibu moms, like Sheila, who used our emergency transportation program. Sheila gave birth at our Operation Karibu site at the Shikusi Dispensary, but when she experienced complications, she needed to be rushed to the nearby county hospital in an ambulance. Without our emergency transportation program, Sheila’s chances of survival would have been seriously diminished. But she and her baby are now healthy and safe.
And Maureen, who almost lost her life in 2011 while giving birth to her second child at home in Kiambu County. Maureen joined Operation Karibu in 2016 and safely delivered her third child through our program at the Ng’enda Health Centre. Maureen is now a tireless advocate for skilled, in-clinic deliveries, speaking regularly to expectant mothers in her village.
We are extraordinarily grateful to the hard-working medical professionals, community health volunteers, and county administrative staff who have made certain that our programs run smoothly so that we may concentrate on bringing Operation Karibu to as many mothers and babies as our resources allow.
Of course, we have a long way to go, as hundreds of thousands of women each year face life-threatening medical complications during pregnancy and childbirth without the assistance of trained medical professionals. We know that we have our work cut out for us in 2017. Though we may cry like the stone, rest assured we will fight like the bulls and offer life-changing results as sweet as the sugar mills of Kakamega.
Asante sana for your undying support!
Moka and Lynne
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