Family Care International (FCI) has been active in Kenya since the early 1990s, and is now working with the Ministry of Health and a range of national and international partner organizations to improve maternal health, increase adolescents’ access to sexuality information and youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services, and reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.

One in 19 Kenyan women will die from pregnancy and childbirth-related causes. The high maternal mortality (1,000 deaths per 100,000 live births) rate is driven by limited access to skilled care during pregnancy, childbirth, and the post-partum period, as well as unsafe abortions, and complications related to HIV/AIDS and malaria.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has hit Kenya hard. In 2003, about 7% of the adult population was estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS and prevalence among women aged 15-49 was estimated to be even higher at 9%.

Making Motherhood Safer

FCI has been working in North Eastern Province, one of Kenya’s poorest and most isolated regions, to improve maternal health since 1999. Women in North Eastern Province face tremendous barriers accessing health care services: there is only one health care clinic every 200 miles. As a result, only five percent of women give birth in health-care facilities, and maternal death rates are high. Throughout the Province’s four districts, FCI has been training nurses and midwives in life-saving obstetric skills, and has been working with district health managers and community leaders to strengthen management, supervision, referral systems and community outreach.

Kenya is also a focus country for FCI's Skilled Care Initiative. Through this work, FCI and local partners are working in the Homabay and Migori districts (Nyanza Province) to improve access to skilled care before, during and after childbirth. As in North Eastern Province, we are using a number of approaches—from training providers and upgrading clinics to community-level interventions—to improve maternal health care and encourage women to use health services during pregnancy, labor, and delivery.

Improving Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health

Since 1997, FCI has been working to ensure that young people in Kenya have life-saving information and services to protect their sexual and reproductive health. In partnership with the Family Planning Association of Kenya and Straight Talk Foundation (Uganda), FCI developed a set of innovative sexuality education materials that are now being used by youth groups, schools, and other youth-serving organizations throughout Kenya and other countries in English-speaking Africa. Through a unique pilot project with private nurses and midwives, FCI has also worked to ensure that preventive and curative reproductive health services are available and accessible to young people.

Complementing these efforts, FCI has worked in several rural districts of Kenya to mobilize broad-based support for the implementation of policies that will reduce the spread of HIV among young people. After training youth and adult advocates at the grassroots level, we supported community-based groups in their work to heighten public awareness of the sexual and reproductive health risks facing youth, and build broad-based support for efforts to meet young people’s needs for sexuality information and reproductive health services. Through this initiative, FCI worked with local partners to develop a range of fact sheets for various audiences—such as parents, religious leaders, and health care providers—as well as a multi-part radio call-in program that was broadcast in both English and Kikuyu.

Strengthening Postabortion Care (PAC)

FCI has developed a set of model educational materials on postabortion care (a flipchart, user's guide, and client brochure) for use in Kenya and other English-speaking African countries, with the aim of improving the quality of postabortion care and counseling. The flipchart, which was field-tested in Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana, is a unique counseling aid that addresses a full range of issues, including unsafe abortion in the community, pre-procedure counseling, post-procedure counseling, and counseling on family planning and contraception.

For more information contact:

P.O. Box 45763
Riverside Court, Flat #3
off Riverside Drive
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: (254-20) 44-43-167 or 44-43-204
Fax: (254-20) 44-17-43
E-mail: kenya@fcimail.org

Family Care International
Anglophone Africa Program
588 Broadway, Suite 503
New York, New York, USA
Tel: 1.212.941.5300
Fax: 1.212.941.5563
E-mail: anglo@fcimail.org