Two New Initiatives By Izzie
November 2019
This summer I spent a month volunteering in Kenya with The Nasio Trust – an amazing experience that gave me the opportunity to get to know 11 Nasio families.
After many home visits, a few jigger treatments and volunteering at the Nasio medical centre, St Mary’s hospital and visiting a local Government hospital, I was particularly interested in maximising access to healthcare, especially for our most vulnerable families.
I was particularly interested in improving access to healthcare, especially for our most vulnerable families.
I was also lucky enough to share my time in Musanda with the Sefton family, who transformed the old Noah’s Ark into a multifunctional bike shop and track. This project clearly brought so much to the community and it was great to see many of the Noah’s Ark children be so invested in learning vocational skills. We were able to speak with the teachers and social care workers to fully understand the importance of learning life skills outside the classroom to prepare for when they finish school.
I have therefore helped kick start two new initiatives with The Nasio Trust: a Textiles Hub and a Health Insurance Fund.
TEXTILES HUB
With the groundwork already happening in Kenya, we are in the process of setting up a textiles hub for Gaudencia Ali, the step mother of one of our sponsored children, Fauzia. She’ll be able to move her tailoring business here so that she no longer has to work out of their cramped living space, and she’ll be supported by a new assistant/trainee, Millie (those of you who have been to Musanda will remember her as the fab cook at the guest house!).
Most importantly, Gaudencia will be able to run lessons and internships for any of the Nasio children interested in learning about tailoring and textiles, a vocational skill that they can use once they finish school! So, we aim to be able to cover the rent until Gaudencia’s up & running & fully self-sufficient, her salary for any lessons she runs with the Nasio kids, and to fully equip the centre with sewing machines and working materials!
HEALTH INSURANCE FUND
The Nasio Trust has an absolutely amazing medical centre in Musanda, which has already made a huge impact on local healthcare, offering free medical check ups for the Nasio children. However, for the time being, this centre can only meet basic medical needs and children are often referred to bigger hospitals for further care. Families who live further away also find themselves seeking care at other hospitals because of transport limitations. The problem is that very few of our Nasio families can afford medical insurance, so these hospital trips cost A LOT!
When in Kenya I met Cynthia and Connie, two gorgeous sisters who are both cared for by Nasio. There are 5 children under 5 yrs old living with Cynthia, Connie, their older sister and their mother – one of which, Abraham, has sickle cell anaemia. Because of a lack of consistent income they cannot afford health insurance, so each time Abraham is admitted to hospital they find themselves in further debt of 10,000ksh (equivalent of £100!!!). This puts them in a cycle of debt, and the prospect of this often dissuades them from seeking immediate medical help when needed.
What shocked me is that medical insurance only costs £4 a month.
What shocked me is that medical insurance only costs £4 a month for the entire household.
This would cover medical insurance for EVERYONE in the household, and would mean any further trips to the hospital are completely free.
I now cover the medical insurance costs for this family of nine, but they’re not the only ones, so I have been working with the Nasio Trust on a new initiative – lets get all of our most vulnerable families covered by NHIF health insurance!
I am running a fundraising event on the 23rd November, and this will be the launch of this new project – there will then be an option to pay for a families medical insurance, either a one-off payment of £48 or monthly instalments of £4. This will make a HUGE impact on our families, for such a small amount of money – the equivalent of a fancy coffee a month!
I am so excited to see these two projects launch and I really appreciate all the support them in these early stages!
If you would like to support either of these amazing initiatives, please contact us, and we can get you set up.
This story is listed in: Achievements, Fund-raiser stories, Projects, Volunteer Stories
