Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

Programs

Mama-Toto Mobile Clinic

last updated Nov 15, 2012

Overview

Implementing organization: 
Health by Motorbike
Implementation Partner(s): 
Nikumbuke Project
Legal Status: 
Private (not-for-profit)
Year Launched: 
2010
Stage: 
Pilot/startup stage
Income Level of Target Population: 
Bottom 20%

Funding

Primary Source of Funding: 
Donor
Funders: 
A Room of Ones Own Bookstore, Center for Peace and Global Citizenship, Davis Foundation, Madison Rotary Club-West, Meriter Hospital., Pharmacy Meriter Health Services, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Scale

Personnel Employed: 
<10
Number of Clients Served: 
Around 5000/year (expect a considerable increase in 2013, probably to 6000)
Number of Facilities Operated/Networked: 
5
Other Measures of Scale: 
300 women trained in basic health care in 2010 through summer health camps in three villages;13 community health workers trained on maternal and neonatal health in 2011. (Planned to train 45 health promoters)
Summary: 

The Mama-Toto Mobile Clinic, or Mother-Child Mobile Clinic in Swahili, is a motorbike equipped with cooler bags full of basic medications and vaccines that goes to the hard to reach villages that are far from health centres to provide essential medicines.

Key program components: 

Most rural areas in Kenya are hard to reach by regular vehicles and therefore motorbikes come in handy to travel on the rough terrain in the rural communities of Lungalunga, Godo and Perani in south-eastern Kenya. The motorbike is loaded with drugs and vaccines and accompanied by a trained nurse or clinician. The nurse travels every Monday to one remote community, and every Tuesday and Wednesday to two additional communities.

The program provides health education outreach to women and adolescent girls by professional health workers on motorbike, and create motorbike mobile clinics with basic medical equipment and basic medication to serve women and children in the same communities throughout the year.

All services are provided through both the Mama Toto Mobile Clinic and the Nikumbuke Health Post. The population now has access to malaria medication through these clinics as well as the Malaria Rapid Tests to avoid over utilization of malaria medication. In 2010 the program was serving around one thousand people. In 2011, the number increased with the addition of a Maasai community of the border with Tanzania. Today, the approximate number of people treated in 2011 is around 3000.

Since May 2010, the program has distributed 900 mosquito nets and have used around 500 Malaria Rapid Tests. Using the Malaria Rapid Test has decreased the cases of over-treatment of other common diseases with antimalaria medication. The constant use of nets after a campaign in the villages and the use of Malaria Rapid Test have evidenced a decrease in cases of malaria. Follow up research indicated that of all the families that reported having been treated of malaria multiple times, only one among three hundred people reported contracting malaria from May 2010 to May 2011,

Although the program charges a small fee for services, those who can not pay are not turned away. There are many free services, including the health literacy provided by the nurse.

The Mama-Toto Mobile Clinic became self-sufficient in 2011, and remains sustainable. Now that they own their own motorcycle, on the days when it's not used for outreach to the most remote areas, it is rented and the profit goes to medications and gas.

They now take new actresses to perform "Health Stories" in the communities they travel in.

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