On March 19, 2021, Centre for Health Solutions – Kenya commemorated its 10 years of existence, and service to local communities. The colourful event was streamed online to hundreds of guests from Serena Hotel, Nairobi.
Among the attendees were top delegates including Dr Mercy Mwangangi, Chief Administrative Secretary, Ministry of Health, H.E Hon Adelina Mwau, Deputy Governor, Government of Makueni County, Dr Marc Burtrlys, Country Director, Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Kenya (CDC-Kenya), and Dr Maurice Maina, USAID Kenya, Tuberculosis Team Lead, Health, Population, and Nutrition Office among other key delegates.
Speaking during the event, Dr Mercy Mwangangi appreciated CHS for being a trusted partner of the Ministry of Health since its inception in 2010. She added that CHS had offered immense support to the Ministry in HIV/AIDS and TB management on key areas such as laboratory and pharmacy systems, monitoring and evaluation, human resources for health, health care financing, and leadership and governance.
“Kenya committed to the UNAIDS 95:95:95 targets to fast track and accelerate action to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. This can only be possible through continued collaborative efforts between the Ministry and key stakeholders including donor and development agencies, County Governments as well implementing partners like CHS.” Dr Mercy said.
She further urged CHS to continue providing national support to TB and HIV programming in the high burden counties.
H.E Hon Adelina Mwau, Deputy Governor Government of Makueni County congratulated CHS for their great investment in service delivery, health leadership and governance, human resources for health, health infrastructure and equipment, health information systems as well as health products and commodity security in Kenya.
“Since CHS began its operations in Makueni County in October 2016, the Makueni County Department of Health has received an investment of KSH 572,256,556.00 towards stemming the HIV epidemic. In the current financial year, we have received 0.99 million US dollars. This funding is channelled to the county through a joint sub-grant managed by CHS and the County Health Management Team,” Hon Adelina said.
She added that CHS supports the Makueni County Health Departments to implement and expand high-quality HIV prevention, care, and treatment services across 68 health facilities. Through CHS support, the county has achieved a satisfactory outcome on viral suppression of 93% in adult males, 92% in adult females, and 80% in children (0-14 years).
Dr Marc Burtrlys, CDC Kenya Country Director noted that CHS has had a long-standing collaboration with CDC since 2011 in HIV control activities.
“CHS remains a highly valued partner to CDC in supporting its work in Central, Eastern and Nyanza regions. CDC has offered over USD 144 million dollars direct funding to CHS,” he said.
His sentiments were echoed by Dr Maurice Maina, USAID Kenya Tuberculosis Team Lead, Health, Population, and Nutrition Office, who noted that CHS has been their main partner in TB control activities which has seen an increase in TB case notification in the country.
“I would like to commend CHS for ensuring that TB activities with the National TB program are well planned, collaborative, strategic and give desired results. Being a local organisation offering indigenous solutions, we have used CHS as a showcase when moving a lot of our projects from international partners to local partners,” Dr Maina said.
For a decade now, CHS has been optimising the delivery and use of health interventions to communities through evidence-informed solutions, innovations, and research to address existing and emerging public health needs.
While giving an overview of the organisation’s third strategic plan, 2021-2025, CHS CEO, Dr Paul Wekesa reassured the guests that CHS would continue with its work of service to local communities while embracing the new changes in the work environment.
“We want to take this forward in this new period to demonstrate continuity and be informed by realities of today. We know today we have the reality of COVID-19, new technology and new work environment . The new strategic plan embraces the new changes in the work environment,” Dr Paul said.
His reassurance was emphasised by CHS Board Chair, Dr Richard Ayah who noted that in building a better society, CHS had solved various public health issues over the 10 years of its existence, and would continue to do so.
