Shanni Wredford-Smith of Community Health Africa Trust located in Laikipia, Northern Kenya
The Community Health Africa Trust is a Kenyan registered Community Based Organisation, which is located in the Laikipia region of Northern Kenya.
In recent years The Community Health Africa Trust (CHAT) has evolved into a robust well-administered Community Based Organisation that provides reliable health, education and counselling services to the people of the Laikipia region in Northern Kenya.
The Community Health Africa Trust provides an outreach door-to-door service to communities of the Laikipia region operating in the form of a mobile clinic. Being one of the sole health care providers to this region, the mobile clinic uses an integrated system of vehicles, camels, bicycles and walking methods to visit approximately 25 different rural sites each month. Staffed with two nurses and a driver, a well-recognised yellow Land Rover travels over 25,000km annually. This vehicle has become a symbol of humanitarian care and health management throughout the region. The mobile clinic reaches approximately 50,000 people annually. The Community Health Africa Trust also operates a fixed clinic at its field station on Mpala Ranch.
The Trusts also work with community based health care workers who provide integrated services for HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health Care. These include Community Based Counselling and Testing personnel (CBHCT counsellors) and Family Planning Community Based Distributors (FPCBD's). All health workers are drawn from their indigenous communities in the Laikipia and Samburu regions. Within the framework of "empowerment and sustainability" these community health workers are not contracted to or employed by CHAT but rather they operate independently.
Camel caravans represent a more appropriate form of delivery to areas that are remote and do not have a road network. Camels are a highly efficient mode of travel as they are able to transport medicine, clinic material, camping equipment and provisions. Camel mobile clinics typically spend one month in the field. The clinic remains for 2/3 days in each community before moving to the next location. Medical treatment and education services rendered to communities are charged at a token rate of 20 Kenyan shillings. If individuals/groups have no money then they often pay with milk or other food items.
