Health
Introduction
Haller’s health programme aims to provide our communities with access to affordable basic health care and education. Through our health centre, education centre and health outreach services we hope to prevent illness before it arrives, and treat it effectively if it does. We work with the Ministry of Health and share our data with the KEMRI-Welcome Trust to deliver free health workshops and high-quality health care at low cost.
Treating Illness
Clinic
Our clinic is ideally situated to treat people from the rural communities, nearby slums and Mombasa town. It is well equipped to provide basic care and the clinical officer is able to perform minor operations and procedures. Between the two of them, Dr Lenox and Nurse Florence treat 900 people every month. All patient data is recorded in a computerised database, which allows us to effectively retrieve a patient’s medical history, monitor the success of health promotion activities as well as share information with the Ministry of Health, KEMRI-Welcome Trust and other appropriate external parties.
Diagnostic Lab
Just next door to our main clinic, our purpose-built laboratory enables us to ensure accurate diagnoses and obtain information regarding disease prevalence. Our laboratory technologist tests urine, blood smears, swabs and faecal and sputum samples.
Outreach service
We operate an outreach service to help the most vulnerable and isolated communities who are unable to travel to the 
main clinic. Purpose-built buildings have been built in each of the communities we visit to provide a private space to consult and treat the patients. A dedicated 4-wheel drive vehicle takes Dr Lenox and Nurse Florence, along with their equipment and medications to visit each community once a week according to a regular schedule. We hold regular meetings with each community’s health committee group to ensure our services meet their requirements and to share ideas and experiences.
Preventing illness
Workshops
We hold workshops 4 times a week both at the health centre and at the outreach centres. These workshops focus on topics such as diarrheal illness, malaria prevention, safe water storage, family planning, HIV/Aids prevention, breastfeeding, nutrition, hygiene and first aid. They are also a perfect opportunity to distribute mosquito nets and condoms, as they often attract large crowds. On average 500 people attend our workshops every month.
Immunisation and vaccinations
A weekly immunisation and vaccination programme is offered to each of the communities, with priority given to children under five and pregnant women. These injections protect people from common diseases such as mumps and measles.
Female Health Training & Education:
Repro ruler
The communities that Haller works with in rural parts of Mombasa have 15-20 people per household subsequently increasing land pressure. In addition, it is estimated that one in ten of girls leave school due to pregnancy. It is therefore, Haller’s objective to help teach girls about their menstrual cycle as well as educating them on family planning options available to them and HIV/Aids prevention.
To help us do this, Haller has worked with Dr. Dieter Rottcher, have developed an educational tool called the repro ruler which is distributed alongside workshops. These plastic, 30cm ruler help girls to understand and track their own menstrual cycle, so that they know when they are most at risk of becoming pregnant. These workshops will also include family planning and HIV/Aids awareness.
Eco-sanitary towels
Disposable sanitary towels are too expensive for many Kenyan girls, and the traditional use of rags can cause embarrassing leakages and health complications. As a result, many girls don’t go to school during menstruation and so miss many weeks of schools over the year, often causing them to drop out. Haller has been working with a small women’s group to set up a small workshop where community members can now learn how to make eco-sanitary towels out of low cost local materials, which are both affordable and hygienic. As well as providing income to the women making them, the new eco-towels are delivered in conjunction with educational workshops which aim to break the taboo connected with menstruation and increase female education.
How health interacts with our other projects:
