MOMBASA, Kenya, Feb 2 – Mombasa residents over the weekend enjoyed a free medical camp and legal services organised by Safaricom Foundation and its in-house counsels. Fatuma Fondo gets an eye check up from Dr Stephen Nguku as Josephne Kamanthe (Foundation Trustee) looks on/COURTESY
The foundation partnered with Diabetes Management and Information (DMI) Centre which facilitated the provision of the medical camp while Safaricom’s legal department joined forces with Kituo Cha Sheria, Federation of Women Lawyers FIDA and local law firms to offer free legal services to the residents.
“Access to healthcare in many regions in Kenya is compromised by a number of challenges such as, inadequate healthcare facilities causing people to travel long distance to access medical care, limited number of healthcare providers as well as high cost,” Safaricom Head of Corporate Responsibility, Sanda Ojiambo said.
So far, more than 830,000 people have benefited from the partnership in the past eight months through the provision of specialised health care services in various mobile medical camps countrywide.
“This is a good opportunity to devolve the health services into the counties. This will enable the people in the counties access some of the health care facilities, get medication and professionals that are just as qualified from one county to the other,” Executive Director of DMI Eve Muchemi said.
The introduction of free legal services to members of the public was seen as a suitable tool to help break from the tradition of providing medical camps only.
“As our contribution to Safaricom’s Transforming Lives initiatives, we partner with external organizations such as Kituo Cha Sheria and FIDA who often provide us with free legal material and booklets that are simple and easy to read and understand,” Head of Legal at Safaricom Limited Justine Njonjo said.
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