AAOKENYA PARTNERSHIP TO REDUCE AIR POLLUTION AND OTHER INDUSTRIAL RESPIRATORY CAUSATIVE AGENTS
Raised: $10 / Goal: $0
At least 1.7 million children under the age of five die every year due to unhealthy or polluted environments, a report has revealed. The World Health Organization (WHO) report released revealed that a quarter of all global deaths of children under five are caused by dirty and polluted environments including dirty water and air, second-hand smoke and a lack of adequate hygiene. In Kenya, according to a United Nations report of 2016 titled “Actions on Air Quality”, at least 14,300 Kenyans die every year from health conditions which can be traced back to indoor air pollution with pneumonia cited as one of the biggest killers associated with air pollution. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said that lack of clean air and water can lead to fatal cases of diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia. This also exposes children to harmful chemicals through food, water, air and products around them. “A polluted environment is a deadly one, particularly for young children. Their developing organs and immune systems and smaller bodies and airways, make them especially vulnerable to dirty air and water,” said Ms Chan. In the report, “Inheriting a sustainable world: Atlas on children’s health and the environment”, the WHO said harmful exposure can start in the womb, and then continue if infants and toddlers are exposed to indoor and outdoor air pollution and second-hand smoke. This increases their childhood risk of pneumonia as well as their lifelong risk of chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma. Air pollution also increases the lifelong risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer, the report said. The report also noted that in households without access to safe water and sanitation, or that are polluted with smoke from unclean fuels such as coal or dung for cooking and heating, children are at higher risk of diarrhoea and pneumonia. Interestingly, air quality monitoring in Kenya is practically non-existent, although a few cases of monitoring have happened after complaints from the public, only to be abandoned later on.
AAOKENYA SINGING FOR HEALTHY BREATHING IN CHILDREN AGED 4-15 YEARS IN NAROK KENYA
Raised: $15 / Goal: $0
BACKGROUND: Singing for healthy breathing project aims to help children with asthma, of the ages between 4 to 15 years breath better and enhance their lives by getting actively involved with their day to day activities as they live with their asthma condition. It aims to test if singing helps breathing and improves the wellbeing of children, taking into account relieving of stress associated with asthma, lung breathing exercises and the general opening of the airways to ease breathing and allowing adequate intake and release of air through the airways. It also aims to identify healthy exercises for children with asthma to help children breath better and relieving them obesity associated with asthma because of redundancy as a result of lack of activeness in physical exercises. In Kenya, despite high prevalence rate of asthma, its burden has not been adequately quantified to support policy and practice thus prompting need of interventions critical to scale up the war against asthma and support of children affected by the disease burden. The Kenyan population is approximately 47 Million as per 2019 census and 10% of the entire population is suffering from asthma, half of the population of those affected being children. Because of the aspects of climate change, increased rates of indoor smoke, environmental pollution with agents that trigger asthma, lack of information and knowledgeability on asthma, lack of properly equipped health facilities and well trained health personnel to assist in early and proper diagnosis of asthma, treatment and management, it is anticipated that in the near future there will be an increase in the number of people suffering from asthma, leading to an increase in mortality rate, children being the worst to be affected. PROJECT OVERVIEW Singing for Healthy breathing in children project, aims to target children aged between 4 -15 years in both rural and urban slum areas of the Thirty Wards in Narok County. Narok County is one of the 47 Counties in Kenya, with a population of 1.2 million people. It is mainly inhabited by the Maasai speaking people whose main way of life is animal husbandry and crop farming. Because of the nature of their livelihood, which mainly involves lots of chemical use both in farms and spraying of their domestic animals, mostly done without the use of personal protective equipments, their living conditions of staying in a small Maasai huts with their domestic animals such as calves, goats and sheep, indoor smoke due lack of adequate ventilation, unfavorable climatic conditions always being windy and dusty or cold and dump lead to worsening of the conditions of children with asthma by triggering attacks. Urban set ups are overpopulated, with inadequate housing, space and ventilation. Indoor smoke as a result of the use of charcoal from wood with high rate of carbon monoxide, adversely affects the respiratory health of young children, who stay indoor most of the time, especially during winter. PROJECT RATIONALE The overall goal of the project is to link between singing and better breathing. The aspect of awareness creation, education and advocacy shall also be taken into account in the long term to ensure families, caregivers, health care providers and policy formulators have been involved in the fight against asthma in young children. Volunteers shall be identified and trained in all the 30 Wards of Narok County and shall be responsible in identifying of children to participate in the singing for healthy breathing project. The singing for healthy breathing to be conducted at least thirty minutes, thrice a week in a simple fun way which will encourage children participation. ASSESSMENT OF NEED In partnership with BreathChamps which has actively been conducting singing for healthy practice amongst the children in UK, Allergy & Asthma CBO Narok-Kenya shall identify volunteers to be trained by BreathChamps and later adapt the UK singing competencies to the Kenyan (Maasai) cultural practices for better understanding, ownership and practice in conformity with their culture. The tools for training, reporting and M & E shall be developed to point out the prevalence rate of asthma in children, measure rate of diagnosis, treatment and accessibility of medication and assess the extent of control measures. Reporting to be done once monthly and meetings be conducted quarterly to discuss challenges and success as well experiences all key towards project progress. PROJECT OBJECTIVES The main objective of this project is to assess if singing helps breathing to improve the wellbeing of children with asthma to enhance their lives and enable them actively engage with their day to day activities. PROJECT ACTIVITIES The project activities shall encompass the following activities which will lead to its success; Virtual training: BreathChamps shall conduct an initial phase of training virtually to Allergy & Asthma CBO Narok Kenya officials and Thirty Wards Volunteers critical in identifying and training of children with asthma. Face to Face Workshops: BreathChamps representatives and Allergy & Asthma CBO Narok Kenya to conduct at least quarterly workshops that will bring all volunteers and some of the children if not all from the Wards they’re drawn from, to congregate together for experience sharing and learning . UK – Kenya singing for healthy breathing exchange programs: Children drawn from BreathChamps and Kenya Project to be brought together through an exchange program that will enable them interact to sing, reciting of poetry and exercises that are healthy, favorable and help better breathing. Asthma awareness creation, education and advocacy. This will bring together other relevant stakeholders such as families of children suffering from asthma, care givers, health care providers and policy formulators to step up on the fight against asthma and amicably implement findings of the project. INPUTS BreathChamps being the lead organization shall offer initial training both virtually and face to face to the Kenyan team. It shall further assist in developing training models, reporting tools essential for M & E. Allergy & Asthma CBO Narok Kenya shall recruit volunteers, mobilize other stakeholders and oversee the implementation of the project. It shall further be responsible to the Monthly reporting of the project progress and quarterly meetings for M & E. SCALABILITY In the long term, the singing for healthy breathing project shall be rolled out to cover all the 47 Counties in the Republic of Kenya to cater for the national interest and capture international attention to enhance and raise the voice of children and people suffering from asthma. MEASURING ASTHMA IMPROVEMENT IN CHILDREN BreathChamps shall provide the model test tool to measure the asthma improvement in children. This shall be a model tool to be filled out by the field volunteers and shall be used to measure control on weekly basis. Tools for measuring Asthma knowledge shall be devised by BreathChamps to measure the level of asthma awareness amongst the people of Narok Kenya. PARTNERS BreathChamps Allergy & Asthma CBO Narok-Kenya Children with asthma & their families/ care givers. Health care providers Policy formulators (County Government & National Government) Local administration. Religious Organizations M & E The progress of the project will be reviewed quarterly (3, 6, 9 & 12 Months) with a major debrief and appraisal at the 12 months. However, monthly reporting shall be used as a tool to make an informed decision on the progress of the project and approach as well as methodology of deliveries shall remain open to the decision to be informed by the project implementers. Narok County being the pioneer County in the Republic of Kenya, shall give a baseline on rolling of the project to the other 46 Counties. Though its initial phase is for 1 year, it is subject to extension depending with availability of funding and decision to be reached upon by the key stakeholders.
AAOKENYA ADVOCACY FOR ASTHMA MEDICINES ACCESS IN KENYAN SCHOOLS
Raised: 0% / Goal:
Asthma is among the most common chronic diseases of childhood in Kenya. Asthma is also among the top reasons why children are admitted to hospital. In Kenya, over 63 children die every year from complications related to asthma. After a concerted effort on the part of AAOKENYA and various advocacy partners, We aim to pass a Law in 2020-2021, which, among other provisions, gives children in Kenya the right to carry their asthma medications in schools We believe that all Kenyan children have the right to safe and healthy conditions in school. All Kenyan children should have the right to carry their asthma medication with them in school.The asthma community is calling on all County Governments in Kenya to institute legislation that will provide children the right to immediately access their asthma medicines in school, in order to ensure the safety of all children with asthma.
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