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Speaking during the handover, Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore said: "With this donation, we continue to highlight our on-going and long standing commitment towards helping raise a healthy generation that will contribute meaningfully to Kenya's development/CFM

Kenya

Safaricom Foundation gives Sh50mn to KNH neonatal ward

Speaking during the handover, Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore said: "With this donation, we continue to highlight our on-going and long standing commitment towards helping raise a healthy generation that will contribute meaningfully to Kenya's development/CFM

Speaking during the handover, Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore said: “With this donation, we continue to highlight our on-going and long standing commitment towards helping raise a healthy generation that will contribute meaningfully to Kenya’s development/CFM

NAIROBI, Kenya Feb 18 – The Safaricom Foundation has set aside Sh50 million to go towards the rehabilitation of the Kenyatta National Hospital’s (KNH) New Born Unit as part of the Kenya@50 legacy projects.

The money will also be used to purchase additional neonatal incubators, new-born ICU beds and resuscitation equipment.

Currently the KNH Neonatal Unit has 15 incubators and four ICU beds with about 100 babies admitted in the unit on any given day.

Every day, five babies born either are pre-term or with low birth weight at the hospital, with many others transferred from other health institutions within the region.

Inadequate resources are therefore largely to blame for the 40 percent mortality rate registered in the unit.

Speaking during the handover, Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore said: “With this donation, we continue to highlight our on-going and long standing commitment towards helping raise a healthy generation that will contribute meaningfully to Kenya’s development.”

The KNH Neo-Natal Unit was started in 1980 as a small unit to meet the needs of two level two health facilities in Nairobi, but has been constrained by the growing population that has seen more babies born each year.

In her speech, First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, who is also spearheading the Beyond Zero campaign, called for the devolution of Public Private Partnerships.

“The Safaricom Foundation has set an example of how the key role that the private sector has in helping us resolve key societal challenges. I would therefore like to urge other private sector players to follow their lead and form similar partnerships for public good particularly at the county level,” said the First Lady.

She, in particular, stressed the need to extend partnerships to all the 47 counties where most public facilities are in dire need of renovation and a face-lift.

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The Safaricom Foundation has so far committed a total of Sh100 million to the Kenya@50 Legacy Projects.

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