Safaricom Foundation has partnered with Mombasa County in a bid to renovate and equip the new born unit at the Coast General Hospital.
Under its Maternal and Child Health programme, Safaricom Foundation has set aside KES10 million to refurbish the unit while Mombasa County has pledged KES9 million to be used to for equipping it.
As part of its Maternal and Child Health programme the foundation has set aside KES 132 million for three years to promote Maternal, Newborn and Child Health services around the country.
As per the Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS) 2014 neonatal mortality rate lied at 22 per 1000 live births, 1.4 times the post neonatal Mortality rate. Coast region had the second highest neonatal mortality rate at 25 per 1000 live births in regional data (KDHS 2014). Globally, the 3 leading causes of neonatal death include: neonatal sepsis (36%), preterm birth (28%), birth asphyxia (23%).
Sanda Ojiambo, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Safaricom, had this to say, “Under our current Safaricom Foundation strategy we are implementing several projects in the Coast as part of our Maternal and Child Health engagement with the six Counties that make up the JUMUIYA. In Kilifi we are currently constructing a new born unit at the Kilifi District Hospital and in Mombasa’s Coast General Hospital we constructed and officially opened a maternal high dependency unit in addition to the current renovation of the newborn unit. In Lamu we constructed and officially commissioned a maternal health shelter in Witu and a Neo Natal unit in Faza.”
The announcement was made at a forum in Mombasa on ways of implementing sustainable Maternal and Child Health programmes. The forum that was hosted by the Safaricom Foundation brought together County health officials from the six Coastal Counties under the economic bloc “Jumuiya ya Kaunti za Pwani” (JKP).