Kenya
Our experts
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Denise StuckenbruckDenise is Team Leader for the Adolescent Sexual & Reproductive Health Programme, based in Kenya. She has 20 years of international development experience, working in the design and delivery of complex and multi-country programmes to implement children’s rights. Before joining Options, Denise was a Principal Consultant at OPM, where she worked to strengthen the public sector’s abilities to deliver quality services to vulnerable children and women. Prior to that, she held various regional and global roles with organisations such as Save the Children and UNICEF across Latin America and East and Southern Africa. Her professional skills include strategic leadership and planning, negotiation, stakeholder engagement, technical assistance, quality assurance, research design and delivery, safeguarding and capacity building. -
Gladys NgenoGladys is the Team Leader for the UKAid-funded Maternal and Newborn Improvement (MANI) Quality of Care project in Kenya, leading Options’ work at county-level health system strengthening in four counties – Kericho, Nandi, Kwale and Mombasa. She’s a public health specialist with 13 years experience in the health sector, both in development and humanitarian programmes in Kenya and South Sudan. She is zealous on improving women’s access to quality healthcare. -
Kenneth MachariaKenneth Macharia is the Country Representative for Kenya where he oversees Options' operations. He is part of the Programme Management team, supporting the Director of Programmes with strategic planning and programme quality assurance. In addition, he drives strategic growth for Options in Kenya and the wider region. Kenneth is a performance driven business professional with over 21 years international experience designing programmes, developing and executing effective business strategies for revenue and market share growth in the UK and Africa.
News
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Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020As part of our MANI programme in Kenya, a new fund supported by DFID will challenge global or local actors in the maternal and newborn health space to bring forward their new or scalable innovations that will help reduce high maternal and neonatal mortality rates. -
Monday, 11 Jan 2021MANI is working throughout Bungoma county in western Kenya to educate communities and increase use of health services. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020On the International Day for Maternal Health and Rights, Options’ Team Leader Nicole Sijenyi Fulton reflects on the realities of disrespect and abuse in childbirth in Kenya, and what should be done. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020This month, The Girl Generation launched a new End FGM Grants Programme in Kenya. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020This week, our Maternal and Newborn Improvement (MANI) project hosted an event in Kabuchai, Bungoma County, to launch a new mobile phone application. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020Across Bungoma County, pregnant women have typically enlisted the help of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) to deliver their babies at home instead of going to a health facility. The MANI project aims to change this by reorienting TBAs to become ‘birth companions’. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020Our Maternal and Newborn Improvement (MANI) project in Bungoma, Kenya hosts a visit from DFID Kenya. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020Our Maternal and Newborn Improvement project hosted an event where it donated essential medical supplies and equipment to the Bungoma County Department of Health. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020'Be bold for change' means to continually stand up for change to end FGM. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020"Boldness for me is about perseverance and having the tenacity and determination to persist with something that’s right, something that’s just." -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020This World Health Day, Kimani Karuga, Technical Manager for the County Innovation Challenge Fund, talks about the need to address postpartum depression in teen mothers in Kenya. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020On the International Day for Maternal Health and Rights, Options’ Team Leader Nicole Sijenyi Fulton reflects on the observations she made on this day last year about disrespect and abuse in childbirth in Kenya, and what Options is doing. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020MANI in Kenya uses a transport voucher scheme which enables poor pregnant women to access health services for the safe delivery of their babies. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020“He is really liked by the community. They are comfortable with him and feel he’s a very good midwife. Women have so much faith in him. They request Ben, instead of the doctor.” -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020The Maternal and Newborn Improvement project in Bungoma, Kenya, supported the county to celebrate midwives and nurses for International Day of the Midwife. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020On World Blood Donor Day, Options’ staff in Kenya talk about the challenges and solutions to maternal mortalities caused by postpartum haemorrhage. By Nicole Sijenyi Fulton & Peter Kaimenyi -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020With funding from the CICF, PATH and the African Population and Health Research Centre are exploring the feasibility and acceptability of establishing a human milk bank in Kenya. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020The World Health Organisation says breastfeeding is the best way of providing babies with the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development. But what needs to be done to make this possible for mothers? -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020“Prior to community scorecards, the health facilities had no means of communicating with the public except through funerals.” -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020The County Innovation Challenge Fund (CICF) held an award ceremony in Nairobi for five new organisations that are joining the fund’s portfolio, marking its entry into a third round of innovations. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020“Now that we have solar power, powering the maternity unit, […], we shall provide quality service to the community." Power outages have made it impossible for Kenyan health facilities to provide vital services but solar panels offer a solution which improves maternal care without harming the planet. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020How a low-cost, simple intervention saves a mother's life. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020150 activists from 17 countries met in Kenya for the first ever pan-African Youth Summit to End FGM. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020In Bungoma county, the supply of blood is difficult to retain due to lack of volunteers donating blood, a high prevalence of bloodborne infections & limited funding for blood transfusion services. The MANI project has been working to tackle shortages by improving quality & access to these services. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020Performance Based Financing is used in Kenya to incentivize health workers to improve maternal and newborn health services. We look at how this led to a three-fold increase in the number of deliveries being conducted at Sikulu Dispensary in Bungoma County. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020In Bungoma county, Kenya, transport vouchers are being used to enable poor women living in remote rural areas, including those with disabilities, to get to a health facility to deliver their babies. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020MANI helped develop a mentorship programme in Bungoma County to address acute staff shortages in two major health facilities, and to develop the skills of nurses and midwives working throughout the county in lower level facilities, to provide Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020Family Planning is central to achieving gender equality. Access to family planning commodities means having the choice to decide if, and when, to have children. When women and girls can access family planning, they can be empowered to meet their full potential. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020The second African Union International Conference on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (ICMNCH) was held last week. Over 700 delegates from 25 African countries gathered in Nairobi, Kenya to take stock of progress and re-strategize how to reduce maternal and child deaths on the continent. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020World Prematurity Day highlights issues faced by the 15 million preterm babies born annually. These infants are particularly vulnerable, but simple solutions can reduce mortality rates. We’re supporting innovations such as Kangaroo Mother Care and Human Milk Banks to save newborn lives. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020There are 200 million young people living in sub-Saharan Africa, yet older generations are still the decision-makers on issues like adolescent healthcare. E4A-MamaYe has been working to change this, giving young people a voice to ensure governments invest in their health and in their future. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020The Maternal and Newborn Improvement (MANI) project started in 2015 to expand access to quality care in Bungoma County, Kenya. As the programme ends, we look at some of MANI’s key innovations, to increase the number of women delivering with a skilled birth attendant and accessing life-saving care. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020In 2016, one of every two maternal deaths that occurred in Bungoma County, Kenya, were caused by blood loss. E4A-MamaYe has launched a campaign, #DamuniUhai, calling for funding for blood services in the county. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020As we seek to ensure our programmes deliver global impact, partnerships remain an integral part of our work. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020The countdown is on for The Nairobi Summit on the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). This year marks 25 years since the first summit in 1994, held in Cairo. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020Building stronger health systems has been one of the biggest strengths for Options’ work globally. Our work in Bungoma, Kenya provided us with many useful lessons and best practices, which has built a strong foundation on our MANI-Quality of Care project, implementing in four new counties in Kenya. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020To stop the majority of preventable maternal and newborn deaths, health facilities need systems like the Maternal Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR) to review factors leading to each death. A look at how it has transformed the health system in Kenya's Nandi county offers some lessons. -
Tuesday, 22 Dec 2020The World Health Organization estimates that 15% of pregnant women develop potentially life threatening pregnancy-related complications. Early detection is key. Find out how our mentorship programme in Kenya strengthens health care workers' skills to do that. -
Monday, 1 Feb 2021After decades of record investments in global health in lower income countries, donors have started to look for exit strategies. These three lessons can support governments to become self-sufficient in financing their health goals.
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