Knocking on doors, saving lives: Kajiado’s unsung health heroes

This story has significance for readers across Kenya and beyond.

Long before a patient reaches a hospital, there is often someone who has already knocked on their door, checked their condition, offered advice or raised the alarm.

In Gichagi Village, Ngong, Kajiado North Sub County, that person is often Eunice Gathoni.

For the past 15 years, Gathoni has walked from one household to another as a Community Health Promoter (CHP), taking health services to families that might otherwise struggle to access them.

Her work is rarely dramatic. It involves teaching families about hygiene, monitoring children’s growth, identifying signs of malnutrition and following up patients living with chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension.

But behind the routine is a form of humanitarian service that often goes unnoticed.

As the world marked World Humanitarian Day on August 19, Gathoni’s story offered a glimpse into the quiet sacrifices made by community health workers who operate at the frontline of healthcare.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, in his message marking the day, called on the world to stand with humanitarian workers and to “act for humanity”.

In Gichagi, that call is not an abstract global appeal. It is lived every day by people like Gathoni.

Gathoni spoke to KNA saying she became a community health volunteer in 2011, long before the government adopted the title Community Health Promoter.

Her daily rounds can take her into homes where patients require monitoring, families need health education or vulnerable people need assistance.

Sometimes, however, the call for help comes at night and as Gathoni speaks to KNA, she recalls occasions when she has walked out of her home to attend to a deteriorating patient, despite having her own family and challenges to worry about.

“I am a volunteer, but I have a family too. Sometimes I am also affected. You get a patient’s health deteriorating at night, you leave even at night to go help, and when you come back you are tired, and I do not have hospital money for my own child. But you still have to go,” she said.

It is a difficult balance caring for other people’s families while sometimes struggling to meet the needs of her own and yet Gathoni continues to report for duty.

“I have always found it hard to watch the suffering of others without trying to do something about it. This has driven me to be a proud part of this community,” she said.

For Caleb Omori, a Community Health Assistant who has worked with CHPs in Gichagi since 2022, their contribution goes well beyond routine health promotion.

He describes them as the community’s first line of defense, particularly when emergencies occur.

“They are very key. They are part of the humanitarian community. They are the first line, in any emergency,” Omori said.

He recalled an incident in Gichagi last month when a CHP became the first responder after a house caught fire, helping rescue two children.

But such dramatic incidents are only one part of their work, every day, CHPs remain alert to unusual symptoms, possible disease outbreaks and changes in the health of vulnerable residents.

“If they see any sign, they report immediately. They are very vigilant,” Omori said.

Their work also includes following up patients with chronic illnesses and assisting bedridden people with home-based care, including the management of bedsores. Without them, Omori says, some patients could easily fall through the cracks.

The contribution of CHPs has increasingly become central to Kenya’s strategy of taking healthcare closer to households.

President William Ruto highlighted this role during the inaugural Health Summit at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) on Tuesday, a day before commemoration of the World Humanitarian Day.

“Before the doctor, there are Community Health Promoters. Before the hospital, there are Community Health Promoters,” Ruto told CHPs gathered at the summit.

He said more than 107,000 CHPs are now serving across the country, reaching about nine million Kenyans and referring more than 750,000 people to health facilities.

The President said the model had shifted healthcare from waiting for sick people to arrive at hospitals to taking services directly into homes.

For Gathoni, however, recognition of CHPs must translate into tangible support.

After 15 years of service, she welcomes the prospect of better support, particularly because her work has never been entirely removed from the financial realities of everyday life.

“If they fully cover me, it will help me. Right now, I have children at home; if you asked me right now, I don’t have money to take a child to hospital,” she said.

Her sentiments seem to have come to fruition as President William Ruto announced that the government will fully pay for Social Health Authority (SHA) medical cover for the over 107,000 Community Health Promoters (CHPs) and their families, with co-funding split between national and county governments.

Gathoni’s experience highlights a paradox at the heart of community healthcare: those helping families navigate illness can themselves struggle to access healthcare and meet basic household needs.

Yet, today Wednesday as she tells her story, Gathoni and fellow CHPs from the Gichagi Unit were back in the community to join residents in a cleaning exercise clearing clogged drains and removing garbage, another reminder that their role extends beyond health advice to the wider conditions that determine whether a community stays healthy.

For residents, their presence may seem ordinary, but behind every household visit, health check, referral, emergency response or cleaned drain is a person who has chosen to show up.

And in communities like Gichagi, that may be the most important humanitarian act of all.

By Byron Ouma

Reporting originally appeared via Kenya News Agency. Read the full source for additional context.