GOVERNMENT PROVIDING FREE PRENATAL AND DELIVERY CARE:
In 2013, the Kenyan government began offering free prenatal and delivery care to all Kenyan women. However, for the women of Mugunda and the surrounding rural areas, it takes hours to get to the nearest public hospitals in the cities of Nyeri and Nyahururu to access this free care. This is a manageable, albeit difficult, task. It becomes too expensive though, when one is pregnant and having to travel with her other four children to her prenatal appointments. It becomes dangerous when one has to make the trip in the middle of a difficult labor and delivery. It simply becomes impossible when the rain season washes out the dirt road and the sparse public transit is completely shut down.
SAVE LIVES | PROVIDE CARE | EDUCATE
Shown below are drawings of the layout of the maternity clinic and the exterior of the design.
Arial View.
LOOK INSIDE: Section at labor room, nurse station, exam, and entry.
LOCALS TO TAKE OWNERSHIP AND LEAD COMMUNITY:
Nyeri County Health currently runs a small dispensary and owns a small lab in Mugunda. The maternity clinic will be located on this same county-owned plot of land, next to the existing buildings. Once built, the building will be deeded to Nyeri County and the Ministry of Health has already committed to staffing, supplying materials, and maintaining the maternity clinic as a public, county clinic. For the women of Muganda and the surrounding rural area, access will be no longer be a barrier to utilizing their free maternal healthcare.
the site of the clinic:
CUTTING DOWN TRAVEL DISTANCE:
The two closest public hospitals to Mugunda are in Nyeri to the southeast or Nyahururu to the northwest. Each will provide free prenatal and maternal care, however access to these hospitals is the real issue. Most women from the rural countryside simply can not travel this distance without access to a dependable vehicle.
The Mugunda Maternity will cover a vast stretch of land, 270 sq miles or 700 sq km and will serve a population of nearly 30,000 people. The location of the maternity is the halfway point between Nyahururu and Nyeri and will drastically cut down the travel time between the existing hospitals to a third of the distance.
