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KTDA Foundation and Gatunguru Tea Factory Carries out 3-day Medical and Community Health Volunteers Training

KTDA Foundation in collaboration with the Muranga Health County Government of and Gatunguru Tea Factory will be carrying out a free 3-day medical camp at Kihoya Health Centre, situated in Gatunguru Tea Factory catchment area in Kangema Sub-county on December 16-18, 2020. This was preceded by the training of 10 Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) who will be part of mobilizing and sensitizing farmers on health-related issues.

The most important resource at KTDA is its human resource that cascades to the bottom of the tea production pyramid. The productivity of tea farming is impacted by the health of our farmers. Farmers especially the elderly are most vulnerable to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that include cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and arthritis. According to the Ministry of Health statistics and Kenya National Prevention and Control of NCDs Strategy confirms that NCDs alone contribute to over 50% of inpatient admissions and 40% of Hospital mortality causing substantial financial burden and pushing individuals, households and communities into poverty as well as slowing down economic progress of the nation.

Therefore, it is incumbent of KTDA to contribute to government efforts in improving the health of this important resource through medical and health services, nutrition as well as training of CHVs to interface with tea communities. Factories through the KTDA Foundation has supported over 38 medical camps with 40,000 receiving treatment and referral services and over 1 million reached with nutrition messages for the last three years. This year KTDA Foundation will support 12 factory catchment areas with medical camps with an aim to improve the health of smallholder tea farmers and their communities by providing access to basic medical and health services.

This is carried out through the collaboration with the Ministry of Health in the respective counties. The partnership on health care and screening aim to improve the livelihoods of farmers on primary health care by providing efficient, integrated, high quality and affordable health care with priority on preventive education for growers and other communities around KTDA catchment areas.

The medical camps are expected to scale up the uptake of knowledge and practices on preventive and curative care. KTDA Foundation working with various partners endeavours to enable the growers to access vital wellness services and sensitize them on the management of non-communicable and lifestyle diseases that usually remain unnoticed until when it is too late and too expensive to treat.

Services offered during the Medical Camps include;

  • Cancer screening for Breast, Cervical and Prostrate
  • Blood Sugar and Blood Pressure screening
  • Provision of medicine based on the prevalence of particular NCDs in the catchment area
  • General treatment of minor ailments
  • Psychosocial counselling and support
  • Nutrition talks
  • Joints issues
  • Referral services

The CHV training aims at:

  • Improving the health of the farmers through promotion of health-seeking behaviours.
  • Building the capacity of CHVs in delivering behaviour change communication (BCC) on NCDs to the community.
  • Enhancing the partnership between KTDA Foundation, Factories and the Ministry of Health especially in the area of public health.

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