The MPESA Foundation has officially handed over a fully equipped maternal and newborn unit to Migori County to help improve maternal healthcare services.
Speaking during the handover ceremony at Awendo Sub-County Hospital, the M-Pesa Foundation Chairperson, Joe Ogutu, said that the foundation undertook the initiative in consultation with Migori county government to reduce maternal deaths and complications in the county.
The county has the highest maternal rate in the country, with 550-600 child deaths per year, and according to Ogutu, serious interventions were needed to solve the problem.
The facility, which is among the best built in the country, is fully operational with the latest equipment, has staff and medicine ready to serve at least 145,000 people drawn from Awendo and Uriri Sub Counties in Migori as well as the neighbouring Homabay and Kisii Counties.
The unit also features modern maternity wards, neonatal intensive care, delivery rooms, antenatal and postnatal services, ensuring mothers and babies receive quality care.
Ogutu said that the new facility will help reduce the maternal deaths from 550 to 300 deaths over the next two years and give hope to women who want to be mothers.
Migori Governor Ochilo Ayacko said that the county has recruited and posted health care workers in the hospital, staffed it with medical equipment and drugs to ensure the new modern maternal unit operates at its optimal.
He noted that the facility will provide accessible, comprehensive, and compassionate services to mothers to ensure healthier families and a stronger future for the Migori community.
He also disclosed that the county will rethink how to expand the facility to provide more health care services to mothers.
Ochilo emphasised that his administration has embarked on a programme to digitise the health care services as well as upgrade and facelift health facilities across the county to uplift the health care standard within the county.
He thanked Mpesa Foundation and Lwala Community Alliance NGO for supporting the facility to ensure that the Migori residents receive better, affordable and quality health care services.
The newly built maternal unit in Awendo Sub-County Hospital brings the number of such facilities to four, with Rongo and Kehancha Sub-County hospitals and the Migori Referral Hospital already having the same facility.
By Makokha Khaoya
