Kiva Stories from the Field

Welcome to the 3 K’s: K-MET, Kisumu, Kenya

29 October 2008 at 09:26 scmforbes 13 comments

When I last corresponded with you, dear Kiva Fellows Blog reader, I was still in my home country, chucking trespassing snakes out of my house and considering whether just one bottle of Pepto-Bismol would be enough for 10 months on a foreign continent. 

I write to you now from my desk at K-MET, in Kisumu Kenya, my home for the next 3 months (Kisumu, you know, hopefully not the desk).  I am drinking my morning tea, which is scalding hot, milky and sweet with just a hint of spice, listening to the roosters in the yard and the chatter of birds waft in through the open window.

I arrived in the country 9 days ago, on a rainy Sunday night in Nairobi. After a long travel day and a tedious visa queue, I was very happy to see the smiling face of a fellow Kiva Fellow, Dave, who was kind enough to meet me at the airport.  I spent the next two days benefiting from Dave’s semi-veteran status as he helped me navigate matatus in the city, and from the hospitality of Kiva Partner Development Specialist David Kitusa’s family. I was lucky to have such a wonderful start to this experience.

David Kitusa was scheduled to be meeting with my host organization K-MET that Wednesday, a coincidental piece of good fortune. From the Kisumu airport, David and I took a taxi down some bumpy roads to the K-MET office, where we were warmly welcomed with carved wooden necklaces.  I immediately liked the place. Now, I’m not saying that I can be won over by a necklace, but this was a really cool necklace. Each member of the staff was friendly and kind, extremely generous with their welcomes. I felt very much at home and could tell that I would enjoy coming into work each day to work along side such nice people.

We were treated to a power point presentation giving a background of K-MET and what the organization does in the community. I was, frankly, blown away. As I continue to see each day the work the organization does and how it strives to create innovative and practical solutions for vulnerable people, I realize even more how valuable their work is for the community. And I’ve only been here 6 days.

K-MET is the Kisumu Medical and Education Trust. It is an indigenous non-governmental organization that was started by a group of Kenyans in Nairobi in 1995. It now operates in 5 of the 8 Kenyan provinces, with its headquarters in Kisumu. Their mission is to promote development of underserved communities through innovative health and education programs.

K-MET was originally founded in order to address reproductive health care.  While abortion is illegal in Kenya, many back alley abortions are still performed, and this contributes to the region’s high rate of maternal mortality (1,000 deaths per 100,000 births compared to a US rate of 17 deaths to 100,000 births). K-MET provides post abortion care and promotes family planning and contraceptive use in order to create an environment where every child is wanted.

K-MET has expanded over the years to provide a wide range of health care services in communities through clinics and home based care programs. I could go on and on about their different programs: the clinical services, the home based care, the nutrition program, the program Sisterhood for Change, which provides skills training for girls out of school…

But you, who have stuck with me this far, must be wondering how microfinance plays into all of this. Other Kiva partners are solely microfinance institutions and here I am typing incessantly about health care. K-MET is an interesting Kiva Partner in that their primary focus is indeed not on microfinance. Rather, the microfinance program supplements their broader vision of meeting communities’ health needs. The microfinance program was initiated in 2004 and they began their partnership with Kiva in 2006. K-MET has big ideas for the program and I am excited to learn what they have in store for the future.

Perhaps you have browsed through K-MET’s clients on the Kiva website and are now thinking, “wait! I see how a doctor purchasing an ultrasound machine is health related, but selling charcoal? That’s a stretch…” While some loans are made to Private Network Providers with health facilities, in order to make improvements to their clinics and services, others are made to what are known as Community Based Service Providers. These are people who work in the Home Based Care program for K-MET as volunteers and have a business from which they receive their income, selling charcoal for example.  With a loan from K-MET and Kiva, they are able to maintain a steady revenue flow, and even increase profits, allowing them to continue their volunteer work caring for patients.

I have started attending borrower group meetings and even had the opportunity to talk to four women about their loan applications yesterday. Hopefully you will see Yucabeth, who is applying for a loan in order to purchase vegetables for her vegetable stand, on the Kiva website soon!

Yucabeth Akinyi Ochieng

I want to leave you with a video created by a former intern at K-MET. Sadly, the portion on the microfinance department is extremely short, but it will give you a bit of an idea of the organization as a whole. 

Entry filed under: Africa, Kenya, KF6 (Kiva Fellows 6th Class), Kisumu Medical & Education Trust (K-MET). Tags: K-MET, Kenya, Kisumu, sarah forbes.