A new hospital is being constructed at Hindi Village as part of new initiatives to address health care in Lamu County.
The humanitarian organization that has been at the forefront of providing medical outreach to Lamu County’s remote villages has started building the multi-million dollar level four hospital in the Hindi area.
Safari Doctors which was founded by Umra Omar a resident of Lamu in 2015 has partnered with Bomu hospital in Mombasa to come up with a health facility that authorities said will not only handle referrals locally but from neighboring counties of Tanariver and Garissa.
Already construction work has begun and once complete the hospital will enable locals to access healthcare even for complicated cases easily
Speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony of the project at Hindi Safari Doctors Acting Executive Director Mariam Abdalla said the hospital will be called Shungwaya.
Ms Abdalla said the aim of the project was to take medical services to the grassroots areas of Lamu County.
She said all two organizations Safari Doctors and Bomu hospital Mombasa were founded by Women from the Coast region
“The aim of forming a partnership between these two organizations to come up with this project is first because of the activities of Safari doctors as we normally take health services to the grassroots and whi8le there one of the major challenges we go through are referrals,” she said.
The Executive Director said they are forced to refer cases to Kilifi or Mombasa and other counties that’s why they thought it better to construct a level four hospital in Lamu to handle those referrals whenever they arise.
She said the hospital will also help Safari Doctors in terms of costs incurred while referring the cases to long distances in other counties.
“Some cases when referred to Mombasa they are normally very costly including transport from, here to the referral hospital in Mombasa, treatment, a single case could cost Sh. 400,000 or Sh. 500,000 for a patient to be treated so constructing the hospital here will reduce the costs incurred by Safari doctors,” she said.
Abdalla said they were three girls led by Umra Omar (now aspiring to be the first woman governor of Lamu) and grew to a level where there are 15 staff members.
“In Safari doctors most of us are youth Umra is now transitioning to go for Governor Seat and she handed me over the authority to me I am also a youth below 35 years,” she said.
On her part, Umra told journalists that Safari Doctors started as a Community based organization which was started to travel to remote areas which had challenges in accessing health care in Lamu County.
“We started in 2014 after the deadly terror attack in Mpeketoni and areas like Basuba there were no health services completely due to the insecurity challenges there were no hospitals, schools, and we used to go there monthly to ensure children get immunization and women get treatment, she said.
She said the organization grew and got several international awards including CNN Heroes, and UN person of the year.
To her, the project emphasized the need to ensure health is accessible to the grassroots levels adding that the reason they called the organization Safari doctors was because locals were spending more to travel than the costs incurred to get the health services.
“You could be going to look for Panadol but you will be forced to hire a bodaboda at Sh. 100 or more,” she said.
She said for universal health care to be achieved health care has to be accessible in the rural areas which have a population of more than 70 percent of the people.
One elected Omar said she would ensure that Universal health care becomes a reality.
The Medical Director for Safari Doctors Dr. Sarah Bury said she was happy to celebrate with the people the groundbreaking of the new brainchild hospital which is done in partnership with Bomu hospital.
She said Lamu has had difficulties in ensuring that quality health care is accessible to the locals.
“We hope together that Shungwaya hospital a health facility that will be right here in Hindi will help us ensure we provide access to quality care for everybody in Lamu County,” she said.
Lucy Wangui a resident of Lamu thanked Safari doctors for coming up with the project as it had gone a long way in helping locals access health care.
She said some locals in Hindi areas of Bargoni, Mkondoni are far and locals have had challenges in getting medical services.
“Since Umra brought this project women have really benefitted ranging from reproductive health, child care, and other ailments affecting locals,” she said.
Wangui said they fully support the project as it will be really helpful and reduce costs of traveling as far as Kilifi or Mombasa to seek medical care and also create employment opportunities.
Pastor Danson Kariuki and Julius Gachioya who are residents of Lamu also welcomed the project saying locals will now be able to access quality health care easily.
