Bringing services closer to communities through integrated outreaches

Beatrice Eduong, 28, lives in Lapong’o Village, about 10 kilometres from the town of Kalokol in Turkana County. The village is very isolated and when the floods come the local community is completely cut from basic services.

The mother of six points to the hot midday sun and says, “We face many difficulties here. Clean water is hard to come by and there is never enough food to go around.” 

Despite the difficult conditions, Eduong is proud of her village and doesn’t want to move closer to Kalokol where services are more accessible. “This is my home. I’m happy here. Why would I want to move away from my home?”

Eduong didn’t get the opportunity to go to school as there wasn’t one anywhere near her village until recently. “I’m happy my children will learn how read and write, something I was not able to do when I was growing up.”

Eduong is grateful that the integrated outreach services (interventions including health education, household water treatment, immunization, nutrition monitoring, deworming, treatment of diarrhea, malaria and respiratory illness, antenatal care) has been brought to her village, enabling her to bring her children for medical checkup. If it weren’t for the integrated outreach services, she’d have to walk all the way to Kalokol to receive health care.

The integrated outreach services enables her to bring her children for immunisation regularly.  While she is at the integrated outreach services, she listens to talks about healthcare, sanitation and hygiene, and the importance of education. Beatrice says, “We have seen our children’s health improve due to the integrated outreach services.”

Eduong says she’d like to see the outreach service come to her village more regularly. She doesn’t have access to any reproductive health services, and she would be even more pleased if these services were also provided by the integrated outreach services.