Mental health and primary health care support in Kenya -Tinada

09 / 05 / 2023 | News

Strengthening Single Mothers Mental Health within Kisumu County – Tinada, Kenya

TINADA Youth Organization are at the forefront of creating mental health awareness to teen single mothers in Kisumu County, so far TINADA has managed to form a total of 15 single mothers support groups in all the 7 sub counties in Kisumu County (Kisumu West, Kisumu East, Kisumu Central, Seme, Nyakach, Muhoroni, Nyando). Newsletter version.

TINADA Youth Organization are at the forefront of creating mental health awareness to teen single mothers in Kisumu County, so far TINADA has managed to form a total of 15 single mothers support groups in all the 7 sub counties in Kisumu County (Kisumu West, Kisumu East, Kisumu Central, Seme, Nyakach, Muhoroni, Nyando). The Single mothers support group session have made mothers learn how to manage their emotions in order not to transfer their anger to their children, they are made aware that environment could affect the child both negatively and positively, the only way to give their children a positive growth is when they learn how to manage the anger of being a single parent. The support group sessions are very sensitive and when handled well, may decrease the chances of children abuses and neglect.

Majority of the single mothers do not have stable income, while some and especially the teen mothers are fully dependent to their parents, who may not have enough to feed the family and an extra mouth to feed may create anger and discrimination from the family members of the single mothers. TINADA empowers the single mothers to learn new ways of sourcing for income to sustain their livelihood.

Primary Healthcare Advocacy Summit in Kenya

Primary Health Care is a priority that has not adequately put in its place. Number of communities in sub-African countries still needs to be strengthened to be able to enable equitable access to quality, affordable primary healthcare services. On this account, TINADA Youth Organization collaborated with different Civil Society Organizations and Government of Kenya to enable the voices of the people to determine the nature and planning of services. This was done through a baseline research community dialogue and sensitization session that culminated in a convention bringing together stakeholders to commit to giving their contribution to primary healthcare.

On the same note, Primary Health Care Performance Initiatives secretariat organized a national workshop named Measurement and Beyond in Nairobi. This was from the angle of the value offered by tracking and implementing strategies to develop access to primary healthcare services. It was determined that Civil Society Organizations play a pivotal role in that ecosystem. Stakeholders agreed that it was vital to link stakeholders including CSO to measurement and action to build capital for primary healthcare.

For more information about the Tinada’s activities in Kenya, please the IFS board member Roy Douglas Otieno roydouglas88@gmail.com