Grounds for Health Fall Update

I thought you might be wondering how things were going here at Grounds for Health and I’m happy to report that thanks to your generous support, we’ve had a great year! We reached our goals in terms of productivity and expanded all our programs. We have also developed some new and exciting projects in Kenya and Ethiopia, all in the name of reaching more women in the coffeelands.

Productivity
Our staff in Kenya and Ethiopia developed and supported programs that screened 14,000 women for cervical pre-cancer. Of those women, close to 1,500 received treatment—and this gets to the heart of what we do. One of our greatest sources of pride is our success in ensuring that women not only get screened, but they also receive treatment if necessary.

Because remember: in the remote communities where we work, once a woman leaves the clinic, we’re not likely to see her again. Women being “lost to follow-up”—as we call it in the medical world—takes on a whole new meaning when the nearest health center can be hours away.

Our same-day “screen and treat” model is essential to our success.

In this past year, 95% of women who needed treatment received it. Few other programs in low-resource settings can achieve this level of success and it’s one reason we’ve become so highly regarded in Kenya and Ethiopia … and one of the reasons you can be proud to be part of the Grounds for Health family.

Projects
Thanks to a large foundation grant coming our way in 2020 (more on that soon!), we will soon embark on a new project in Ethiopia that is truly exciting.  It will allow us to deepen our influence in Gedeo and expand into Guji zone. We will also introduce a new treatment technology through an exciting new model of service delivery.

This new treatment method—called thermal ablation—is equally effective and significantly less costly than what we currently use (cryotherapy). The experience for women is better, as well, since it takes 1/10 of the amount of time to perform the procedure.

I could talk on and on about this, so let me know if you’d like more detailed information or you want to get involved on the ground level. Email me or give me a call: (802) 876-7835.

Finally, I am thrilled to report that it’s time to expand our Kenya program with the addition of a new staff member! This will give us the opportunity to reach more women in Nyeri county and free our current staff to do more advocacy and partnership development. I’ll let you know when things get finalized so you can welcome our new staff. We have some big project ideas for Kenya coming down the road, so stay tuned!

Thank you so much for your ongoing support. I hope you find time to relax in this busy time of year, and know that you’re part of some great things at Grounds for Health! Your commitment to Grounds for Health will never go unnoticed.