Communities Health Africa Trust (CHAT)
Integrating efforts to enhance the health of both people and the environment in Kenya’s most underserved communities.
Communities Health Africa Trust (CHAT) understands that population, poverty and the environment are deeply interconnected in Kenya. For over two decades, CHAT has been working in regions where people and nature live together within fragile ecosystems. Their work focuses on delivering holistic and grassroots health strategies that address family planning while also offering basic health services to those who would otherwise need to travel vast distances to access such care.
In an effort to reach communities across a variety of challenging terrains, CHAT incorporates multiple methods of travel - their team navigates across Kenya by foot, camel, bike, and car. The organization’s efforts are currently focused on five ecosystems within Kenya: North Kenya Rangelands, Tana, North Rift, Lake Victoria Basin, the Mara, and Nairobi.
Statistics:
Limited access to contraception contributes to 74m unintended pregnancies and 20m unsafe abortions annually
Approximately 300,000 women die each year worldwide from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.
55,324 women
reached with different Family Planning methods of their choice
138,981 individuals
reached with positive PHE behavior change information
A quickly growing population not only places increasing pressure on a family’s health and stability, but also on the natural resources that local communities depend on. Such pressure contributes to environmental degradation and challenges such as deforestation, overgrazing, and increased human-wildlife conflict. CHAT believes that individuals and communities can better prosper and sustain the health of their environment when they have access to family planning.
CHAT supports communities by identifying and partnering with a community’s own resource person (CORP) within a given community. CHAT provides each CORP with education, resources, and support to work within their own communities and address family planning, their health and environmental challenges that are unique to that place. In 2018 alone, CHAT was able to reach nearly 138,981 marginalized and underserved individuals across 13 counties in Kenya. This was accomplished through the training and utilization of CORP members who went door-to-door providing information about family planning and other behavior change services.
Looking ahead, CHAT is aiming to empower communities to advocate for their own health services, which would in turn improve people’s quality of life and strengthen the health of the environment into the future.