Kilifi County Teaching and Referral Hospital has become the first beneficiary of the SportPesa Foundation maternal healthcare support programme this year, after receiving equipment to enable it handle increasing demand for these services.
The hospital which handles an average 600 deliveries in a month has today received beds for the maternity wards, delivery beds, patient trolleys, procedure trolleys, patient monitors, pulse oxymeters, vital sign monitors and dopplers to improve its maternal health care services.
“We handle a high number of patients and deliveries in the maternity unit. The equipment we have received will help us manage them better because sharing of beds in the maternity ward has been a challenge and poses many risks of hospital acquired infections among our clients,” said the hospital’s Nursing Officer in Charge, Mildred Santa.
SportPesa Foundation launched its Maternal Health Care support programme in March 2021 to equip the maternity units of needy hospitals across Kenya with an aim of promoting hospital deliveries which are deemed safer.
The foundation’s representative Esther Kang’ethe said the company will particularly focus on remote and low-income areas to ensure that women get access to maternal healthcare services affordably and faster, without having to travel long distances to access these.
“The need for these maternal healthcare services are growing by the day in Kilifi which leads to overcrowding in the maternity ward, a very risky affair especially during these Covid-19 times,” said Kang’ethe who is the Foundation’s Project Lead.
SportPesa brand ambassador and Kenya’s celebrated female boxer Zarika Fatuma emphasised on the need to reduce teen pregnancy rates in the area further by stepping up family planning sensitization efforts.
“I plead with our young women to seek counsel and support from the government on family planning. Nevertheless, giving birth at a young age should give you the drive to work harder for your children as I have done in my life, rising above the challenges to better their lives,” noted the former World Boxing Council’s Super Bantamweight champion.
Zarika who gave birth while still a teenager said she was inspired to pursue a career in boxing to fend for her baby, a sport that has catapulted her to the global stage. She called on mothers to give birth in hospitals for safer deliveries – a call that resonates with SportPesa Foundation’s maternal healthcare support programme.
Last year, SportPesa Foundation donated equipment to several public and mission hospitals in seven counties. These counties are: Homabay, Narok, Kiambu, Meru, Nairobi, Bomet and Tharaka Nithi. SportPesa Foundation supports communities in areas of sports and education, maternal care and ending period poverty by promoting menstrual hygiene projects.
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