Team Mum Gets Stamp of Approval by Local Health Authorities


Posted on
24th May 2022
by Cherio Onacha


Last month, something awesome happened…

Our team received glowing feedback from Meru’s County and Sub-county health management authorities* in response to how Team Mum’s Pregnant Women’s Groups (PWGs) have positively impacted maternal health in the area.

This is a fantastic outcome as Clare, our Operations and Grants Manager, points out: “Having the opportunity to meet with County and Sub-county officials and hearing their take on the project is proof alone of the impact Team Mum has had within the community.”

Cherio, our Programme Manager, and Clare visited Meru just last month to meet with these health management authorities, alongside Jacob and the rest of Child.org’s Meru team. At the same time, they celebrated a Team Mum graduation ceremony - where expectant mums share what they have learnt, we have a bit of a dance and then everyone gets a Team Mum Kanga - joined in with a community dialogue, and met local Community Health Assistants and Volunteers.

* The health system in Kenya is devolved (a bit like regional health authorities) and each county is in charge of the health and health teams within their own regions.

    Clare dancing at the graduation ceremony                Omoko handing out kangas at graduation

 

In Cherio's Own Words

 

For the first time since we started Team Mum in 2019, the UK, Nairobi and Meru teams were able to meet in April and discuss the project’s success and what’s next. We had postponed this activity on several occasions because of COVID and so we were very excited to finally reunite. 

 

Clare and I are so proud of Team Mum’s success; we have managed to achieve so much under very difficult circumstances exacerbated by the pandemic. We shared learnings and challenges, and even drew up a road map as to what we want the future of the project to look like!

We invited our friends from the County and Subcounty health management teams to give us feedback. They told us how Team Mum has impacted maternal health within the region; such as an increase in the number of women attending at least one antenatal care session and more deliveries being conducted by skilled birth attendants.

As Project Manager, I am proud of the team’s motivation and dedication. The success of Team Mum is a testament to their hard work, perseverance and passion over the past three years. It was very rewarding to see them articulate with confidence what they had achieved in such a short period of time.

                                                                                   

Cherio talks to a Team Mum Pregnant Women's Groups

You Helped us Get Here!

We are so proud of what our team has succeeded with Team Mum, and grateful to all you supporters for helping us get here. This is a very exciting time for Child.org and our local partners - we’ll be sharing more data from our latest report soon! - so sign up to our newsletter to hear more about our successes and what’s to come!

 

                                   Clare & Cherio with the Meru Team: Sam, Faith, Omoko & Jacob