Support FreMo Medical Centre and the community of Kawangware

Hello dear friends and family!

Let me take this opportunity to introduce you to FreMo, a health clinic in the informal settlement Kawangware in western Nairobi. According to the Kenya Home Bureau Statistics 2019, the entire population of Kawangware was 292.000 people. It is estimated that 65% of the population are children and youths. Most inhabitants live on less than $2 a day, and unemployment is high. Informal settlements like Kawangware are facing a scarcity of safe drinking water, and the city authority's water supplies are unreliable. Although improvements have been made across the area, sewerage systems are still not established effectively in all parts of the district and therefore waterborne or airborne diseases can spread quickly due to poor hygiene.

FreMo Birth and Medical Centre was founded in 2009 by Moffat Osoro with only $1000 start credit. His brother Fred, a medical doctor, joined him two years later. Together they kept dreaming about providing affordable, quality and accessible medical care to the people of Kawangware and, by doing this, serving the community around them.

Fred (left) and Moffat (right)

In 2011 an Australian midwife called Vickie Chan joined them and helped build the birth centre. Even though the main focus is maternal and infant health, FreMo caters to all patients around the area and works with larger referral hospitals in Nairobi. As time passed, FreMo became increasingly popular amongst families around Kawangware, seeking more gentle, women-centered, dignified care during labour.

prenatal classes - free for all expecting mothers in the area

During my volunteer service, I felt so privileged to be a part of FreMo and to witness the passion, endurance and positive mindset that the staff brings to the place. Despite significant financial and bureaucratic challenges, it is truly incredible what they have achieved through God’s helping hand for many people. The health clinic operates independently, not relying on regular donations.

Thankfully FreMo has recently been approved to cover its patients through the National Hospital Insurance Fund. Also the refurbishment of the facility was successful thanks to the enormous effort and patience of all the staff but also thanks to some donations.

I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge THANK YOU to each and everyone of you who supported FreMo a few months ago after devastating floods caused a lot of damage to the facility. Here are some impressions on how your money was used in the last months.

finishing up the repair works

Both of those patient rooms were completely flooded as the roof collapsed due to the rains. A new roof has been installed now. See pictures of the installation:

FreMo is proud to even have a proper board room for staff meetings and medical trainings:

one of the delivery rooms where the water was drained succesfully

Flooding of the hospital garden and the buildings is now prevented by a well-installed drainage system.

As you can see, through savings and donations, FreMo was able to afford all of the refurbishments.

At present the facility is in need of equipment for its operating theatre. The room is there, the staff is available, even the generator for power backup has been purchased.

A theatre table is required urgently and unfortunately those are very costly, estimated at 290 000 Kenyan shillings (around 2000€). The picture below shows an unused delivery bed which has been placed there in the meantime but unless the operating table is installed, the theatre cannot be used as such.

An instrument set for caesarean section was purchased already but another one is required in case of emergency (the costs are 45 000Ksh, around 300€).

Having a theatre in the clinic will reduce the numbers of very complicated hospital referrals of labouring women.

We would really appreciate any donations. You can rest assured that all donations that I receive will by transferred to FreMo via the Kenyan mobile money network (called "M-Pesa"). If you'd like to receive a donation receipt for your tax return, please let me know. Please keep in mind that Gofundme.com as a brilliant and very helpful website also receives as small fee from each donation.

Thanks so much for your support! And feel free to get in touch with any further questions. If you want to find out more about FreMo please visit their LinkedIn, Instagram or on Facebook.

If you would prefer to support specific individuals to improve their situation, please contact me and I will connect you with the founder Moffat.

God bless you all! Mungu awabariki wote!

Anika