It is so good to have so many people visiting Kenya over the last few weeks and we have been busy looking at a number of areas of our work. One of the areas we have been reviewing is the subject of health.

Over the past week we have been able to look at some of the issues around health that Doxa either already deal with, or might like to consider.  These include the supply of sanitary pads, family planning, dealing with pregnant women, emergency first aid and health clinics.

The supply of reusable sanitary towels in order to support young girls remaining in education has been a huge success, but we now need to find the best way to replace these as they have a limited shelf life and we want to avoid the risk of infection.

We now have a much greater understanding of what maternity services are available for the women here, what their needs are and where Doxa can fit in.

Family planning (or the lack of it) is very much a cultural issue and any changes are likely to be over years, if not decades.    However the completion of our community hub currently under construction will allow us to provide educational services in many of these areas, as well as the example set by our own Kenyan team.

We have also been exploring the possibilities of partnering with local Kenyan professional medics to hold clinics that would concentrate on diseases that could be treated without huge cost, eg diabetes, blood pressure and HIV.  This could be an exciting venture for us to consider and we are going out to observe one such clinic next week.