On December 06, 2022, CHS officially closed out its Tegemeza Plus project, after five years of transforming lives sustainably through healthcare in Central Kenya with funding from the U.S President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Speaking during the project dissemination meeting on behalf of the Nyeri County Governor, Robert Thuo, the CEC Health Nyeri County thanked CHS for transforming the livelihoods of the people of Nyeri and its neighbouring counties of Muranga, Nyandarua and Laikipia through the Tegemeza Plus project.
“In the life of this project, CHS strengthened the capacity of the department of health to progressively implement, manage and oversee HIV service delivery. During this journey, my county greatly benefitted, and my team was empowered to implement and expand sustainable high quality HIV services,” Thuo said.
While assuring CDC continued support in HIV programming, Dr Jonathan Mwangi, CDC Kenya Tegemeza Plus Activity Manager thanked CHS for not only successfully implementing Tegemeza Plus but also for putting in place sustainability measures with the counties setting the agenda for in country funding of HIV programming.
“The number of beneficiaries reached either directly or indirectly have a good quality of life of health ahead of them thanks to CHS. Moving forward HIV funding will be country owned and led as a result of the sustainability seeds planted by CHS through health systems strengthening, “ Dr Jonathan said.
CHS CEO Dr Paul Wekesa noted that, CHS journey in Central Kenya has been a journey of dedication, collaboration and efficient health service delivery.
“CHS work has been and continues to be premised on service to local communities by implementing evidence-informed solutions, among them innovations informed by our years of experience implementing health programs. These have been developed and curated with our clients in mind. The innovations include the CHS sample barcoding system; an electronic process of labelling viral load and EID samples, and TiBA Tekelezi; a mobile phone and web based application used for TB COVID-19 bi-directional screening and testing,” Dr Paul said.
Dr Paul added that through Tegemeza Plus project, CHS had strengthened health system in Central Kenya having worked collaboratively with the county governments to ensure sustainability and continuity of the work they have been doing.
“ Our agenda over the last 12 years in Central Kenya and, as the project name implies, Tegemeza for sustain was to ensure that beyond health service delivery, we also took strides in fueling the sustainability agenda through various ways which include; capacity building of health care workers, implementing Sub County Ministry of Health led mentorship, supporting the transition agenda (counties are now receiving direct funding, absorption of health care workers), and investment in Electronic Medical Record Systems for all supported health facilities and renovations,” Dr Paul added.
Dr Paul thanked everyone who has contributed to the successful implementation of the project. He thanked CDC for funding support, Muranga, Nyeri, Laikipia and Nyandarua counties for the goodwill , health partners for the collaborative effort, CHS staff and healthcare workers for the hard work and dedication, and the project beneficiaries for their cooperation and dedication shown by some of them to deliver health care services to their communities.
Below is a snapshot of the project achievements for the last five years;
Tegemeza Plus project was a five year project funded by PEPFAR through CDC to implement and expand quality, sustainable and comprehensive HIV prevention, treatment and care services in Central Kenya since 2017 across four counties (Nyeri, Murang’a, Laikipia and Nyandarua). In 2019 and 2020 CHS closed out support to the Laikipia and Nyandarua counties respectively.
