For this week’s blog we’d like to tell you about Becky and how her life and lives of other girls like her in Londiani are being changed and improved with your support.

Becky is 11 years old and she was born on March 8th – a very significant date as this is also the date chosen to celebrate International Women’s Day! She has a little sister named Faith. Her dad is a truck driver and her mother is a farmer.

Becky was born at home and her mother had the help of a traditional birth attendant. Not all births have a happy ending as only 16% of mothers deliver with the help of a skilled birth attendant. Friends of Londiani are changing that with maternal health programmes that train more community volunteers to monitor women during their pregnancy and encourage referral to hospitals and clinics for medical care. Women are encouraged through these programmes to give birth in a facility where there are trained staff available to help them deliver safely. By the time Becky is old enough to want to become a mother herself, pregnancy and delivery for her will be a safer, healthier and less risky experience.

When Becky was a baby she received vaccinations at her local dispensary in Kedowa. To accommodate women who live in remote areas without access to a dispensary, Friends of Londiani support the Ministry for Health to run outreach clinics that reach these women and their babies with vaccinations and post natal care.

If you would like to volunteer with Friends of Londiani in Kenya and see these programmes up close and personal click here for more information.

Photo: Becky pictured with her Mum Amy at school