Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

Programs

Kenya Acorn Project (KAP)

last updated Mar 25, 2013

Overview

Legal Status: 
Private (not-for-profit)
Year Launched: 
1998
Stage: 
Existing/expansion stage
Income Level of Target Population: 
Bottom 20%

Funding

Primary Source of Funding: 
Donor
Funders: 
and other supporters, British Army in Kenya

Scale

Other Measures of Scale: 
10 new facilitators have just been recruited and trained before commencing teaching. The facilitators work on a voluntary basis, with a token salary of Ksh110/- per session plus meals and expenses. Teaching is currently carried out in each of the five KAP schools, at a rate of fifteen sessions per year, which is once per term in each school. Sessions typically last 1.5 hours.
Summary: 

The Kenya Acorn Project seeks to reduce the incidence of death and disease, to promote the health of the population, and to improve the educational attainment of the pre-and primary school children in the area of Ndhiwa, by working in partnership with local communities, government agencies, and other voluntary organizations.

Program goals/rationale: 

The project objectives are:

  • Develop a community based program for HIV/AIDS care

  • Employ a school/community nurse who deals with community health, health education, immunization and outreach clinics

  • Improve self-sustainability of the hospital by increasing income and improving efficiency

  • Improve hospital services by purchasing equipment and education for staff

Key program components: 

KAP has established a Total Patient Care Centre for those infected and affected by HIV and AIDS offering:

  • Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT): The VCT Centre has also started a moonlight testing service which starts from 5.00pm to 9.00 pm in the hopes to reach a broader client base.

  • Drug Treatment: Anti-Retrovirals (ARVs).

  • Home Based Care: Home Based Care is the availability of support for HIV/AIDS patients within their own homes. Both acute and terminally patients can receive home based care.

  • Post test support groups/clubs for adults (Patient Support Clinic - PSC) and youths: The Patient Support Clinic is a group which meets on a monthly basis to provide support for those who have tested positive for HIV/AIDS. They meet to receive their drugs, treatment, nutritional advice and health and education teaching. The clinic offers services including: On-going clinical assessment; On-going counseling; Adherence counseling; Provision of ARVs; Treatment of Opportunistic Infections (OIs).

An Outreach Clinic is also run on the last Tues of every month to the village of Sibugo, which is approximately a 45 minute walk away from the main hospital. The clinic deals with mother and child health care including the full Kenya Expanded Programme on Immunization (KEPI) vaccination programme. It is hoped to run further outreach clinics, with one planned for the second Tues of every month at Sibuoche, depending on current coverage by other agencies.

Program history: 

The Kenya Acorn Project was established in 1998, by a group of UK visitors to the Ndhiwa area of Western Kenya. It was registered as a charity in the UK in July 1999 and as an international NGO in Kenya in October 2002. KAP is a membership organisation, with a board of trustees based in the UK and Kenya.

The project grew from an individual’s key interest in the development needs and aspirations of the Ndhiwa community. Muriel Armstrong, a senior nursing lecturer in North East England, founded KAP. Early achievements included the renovation of a derelict house into a community hospital, with laboratory and mortuary facilities; equipping the hospital with medical items, drugs, and sanitation and waste disposal facilities, including an incinerator; providing support to schools for the building of new classrooms, water catchment systems, pit latrines and improvement of other physical facilities.

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