Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) on Thursday evening scooped two coveted awards in this year’s Quality Healthcare Kenyan Awards.
The organization, founded by Dr. Kennedy Odede in 2004, competed in two categories against five health facilities drawn from both the public and private sector.
In the access to Primary Health Care category, SHOFCO triumphed against Likoni Subcounty Hospital and Tharaka Nithi County Referral Hospital, scooping the top award of the night, while in the Award of Excellence in response to Covid-19, it beat Emergency Plus Medical Services, Gertrude’s Children Hospital and Kiambu County Government to win the prize.
“However, it must be noted that the twin recognition, the second in the Primary Health Care and first in Award of Excellence in response to Covid-19 categories, did not just happen from nowhere, but sheer determination to serve the communities around us,” SHOFCO Director of Health, Emma Ingaiza, said.
The award, she pointed out signifies the organisation’s consistency in sticking to its mission of accelerating transformation in urban slums by providing critical services for all, community advocacy platforms, and education and leadership development for women and girls.
“We do this through our clinics and health centres spread in Mathare and Kibera where we provide services at the level 1 healthcare provision using Community Health Volunteers who help in conducting outreach programmes by sensitizing households in the slums,” she said reflecting on the award ceremony at the Safari Park hotel which coincided with the World Health Day marked on April 7 globally.
This, she said has seen communities access to information regarding prevention of infections as well as understand why it is important to visit health facilities in case of situations where they are not able to manage the disease.
“Through CHVs, we empower communities on how to wear masks; wash hands and dispose medical waste properly, and also to be aware of what is offered in our clinics and those in government facilities,” she said.
The organization, she said, did not take off its eyes from continuing with community interventions even at the height of Covid-19 pandemic.
“We continued to provide essential services to the communities around us,” she pointed out.
This, she noted, included; primary health and preventative care, pre and postpartum care, child immunizations, comprehensive HIV care, family planning, cervical cancer screening, gender-based violence response, and a child nutrition program.
The organization currently has six health clinics serving Kibera and Mathare residents.
“In 2020, we served 17,997 people through our health clinics, offering primary health care services only during the COVID-19 pandemic,” she added.
While, essential services in most of the health facilities in the country almost ground to a halt at the peak of Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020, SHOFCO conducted 999 malaria rapid diagnostic tests and treatments; served 17, 997 patients across six (6) clinics and conducted 2, 559 HIV tests and related counseling.
Speaking during the ceremony, Quality Healthcare Kenyan Awards director, Grace Ndegwa pointed out that health services must be designed to meet the needs of the consumers, and at most, should be responsive to their expectations.
“There is a need to emphasize strong partnerships between healthcare providers and health service users to guarantee the maximum level of quality by ensuring safety, effectiveness, equity, efficiency, patient- centeredness and timely delivery of services,” she noted.
In view of quality healthcare being a basic right as enshrined in the Kenyan Constitution, Ndegwa said that still poor quality of care is prevalent in both the public and private sectors emphasizing that quality healthcare should always be seen as an issue of social justice and human rights.
“Failing to deliver healthcare services that improve the desired health outcomes for individuals and populations at large, inhibits progress towards a more equitable and just society,” she stated.
The Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems affirms that high-quality health systems could save over 8 million lives each year in middle- and low-income countries.
“Now more than ever, it is time for a quality revolution among low- and middle-income countries to improve health outcomes. As Kenya scales up Universal Health Coverage in the era of the Sustainable Development Goals, quality should be the foundation of health service delivery,” she added.
The organization also has mobile clinics that serve 17 slums in the city.
As Level Two facilities, the Kibera and Mathare clinics offer maternal child health, nutrition, outpatient child screening and HIV/AIDS testing, all which fall under health prevention and promotion.
SHOFCO’s community health volunteers also conduct prevention and protection through door-to-door sensitisation campaigns, identify those with illnesses that need treatment or referrals as well as emergency cases.
The organization runs clinics in Manatha established in 2014, Kianda (2015), Subra (2017) and Makina (2017).
The second recognition on the Award of Excellence in response to Covid-19 is something close to Odede’s heart which saw the organization stand firm in providing services during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He pointed out that during the Covid-19 pandemic, provision of healthcare was key to SHOFCO’s holistic approach to help build empowered and healthy generations.
“We managed to reach over 2.4 million people with emergency response activities across 22 slums,” he said.
During the pandemic he said SHOFCO’s COVID-19 response activities spanned from March 2020 to date, and included; screening of 1.9 million people for COVID symptoms in its clinics and household-level outreaches.
“We managed to do this in coordination with 820 Nairobi county health workers across seven sites in Kibera, Mathare, Kawangware, Mukuru, Korogocho, Kisumu, and Mombasa,” he added.
Suspected cases were referred to the Ministry of Health for quarantine and testing.
On hand washing and sanitation, the organization recorded 53 million uses of its 354 handwashing stations across 17 sites stationed strategically at the main entry and exit points of the slums so that people can wash their hands upon entering and leaving the informal settlements.
“By December 2020, we had transitioned 314 stations over to community management,” he added.
The organization also distributed 28 million litres of free and clean water.
It used an innovative aerial water piping that saw 8,820,450 litres of free water given to people in Kibera, and 19,780,016 litres via socially-distanced water truck access points in other sites.
This is just the latest on a number of accolades won by SHOFCO recently, the other ones being Conrad Hilton Humanitarian Prize Award 2018, 2018 and 2019 Quality Improvement participation in Nairobi County best practice and learning forum awarded Best Quality Improvement project at both Kibera-Langata sub-county level respectively and also awarded best QI/WIT file at Nairobi County.
In December 2020, Odede was also awarded a Head of State Commendation (HSC) for his incredible work in Kenyan urban slums during the Covid-19 period.
SHOFCO is currently serving 2.4 million people across Kenya