【JICA grassroot】We held a midterm project reporting session with Ministry of Health, Homabay!

【JICA grassroot】We held a midterm project reporting session with Ministry of Health, Homabay!

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This meeting was held on 24th May 2023 at Golden Rays, Homa-bay County. 51 County and Sub-counties staff were able to attend.

The Main Objective for this meeting was to;

  1. Give a progress report on the intervention project.

The meeting was to give a report on the progress of the project since it began, its successes and challenges and to get a way forward on how to address the challenges but with the main objective of sustainability even as JICA-NUITM faces out.

2. To involve the other 7 sub-counties and know their jiggers state using the existing data at both the community and facility level.

The project presentation was done by Ms.Sharon Anam and Ms. Kana Suzuki.  They reported the package of activities that were done and showed how the targeted 2 sub-counties have decreased the cases by about 30%.

The attendance had a lively discussion according to the various pictorials that were shown and discussed the challenges which are related to the myths and misconceptions surrounding the disease.

JICA-NUITM also presented the progress they are making with the DVB-NTD and Division for Informatics on how to be able to report community cases of jigger infestation in Kenya.

Presentation of various sub-counties

All the sub-counties presented their Jiggers situation from the DHIS. Many sub-county staff members seemed to have seen Jiggers data for the first time. When it comes to jiggers and one would easily conclude that the manifestation of the disease in some porches in every sub-county needed a multisector approach.

Way forward

  • Data availability in the MOH 707
  • Routine Household surveys
  • Sensitization of health care workers in the facility, CHPs, and teachers to help identity and treatment of jiggers’ cases.
  • Environmental sanitation at both school and household levels.
  • Develop a policy at the county level on jiggers’ elimination.
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Strengthen child-to-parent relationships at the household level
  • Dialogue and Action Days
  • Strengthen school health programs
  • Provision of psychosocial support to the affected families at school and household.

The Ministry of Health, Education, and other stakeholders thanked JICA-NUITM for their good work and promised to support them in their endeavors.