• Reducing malaria by using treated bed nets, reducing stagnant water and increasing education about the disease is very important.
• The women say an important issue is increasing access to menstrual hygiene products and improving hygiene education.
Image: WILLISH ADUR
Women professionals from Nyanza will focus on reducing teen pregnancy, malaria and rampant spread of HIV in the next five years.
The Professional Association of Nyanza Women (Pany) launched its core strategic plan on Friday, prioritising seven key areas.
Health is atop the agenda, because the region has high cases of maternal and child mortality.
The group says it will advocate increased investment in healthcare access, nutritional needs in the six Nyanza counties, education and community engagement. With these realised, it hopes for a decline in the problems.
Reducing malaria by using treated bed nets, reducing stagnant water and increasing education about the disease is very important.
The women say an important issue is increasing access to menstrual hygiene products and improving hygiene education.
This should lead to increased menstrual dignity for girls and reduce HIV infection if they have sex for money to buy sanitary towels.
The latest figures from the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC) released last year showed Nyanza, Rift Valley and Eastern are leading in the number of HIV-positive cases.
Nyanza recorded the highest number of HIV-positive cases at 341,903, Rift Valley at 201,689 while Eastern at 97,505.
The number of new HIV infections in the country overall dropped from 34,540 to 22,154 in 2022.
The number of people living with the virus fell by 59,483 from 1.4 million to 1.37 million, the council report showed.
The number of deaths decreased by 3,900 from 22,373 to 18,473. HIV prevalence among females stood at 5.3 per cent and among males at 2.6 per cent, the 2023 report said.
The number of Kenyans on antiretroviral therapy increased by 175,488 from 1.12 million to 1.29 million.
Nationwide, prevalence stood at 3.7 per cent for adults (aged 15 to 49 years). The rate among women was 5.3 per cent and among men 2.6 per cent.
On education, the lobby aims to widening access to education for teen and young mothers, to provide more education mentorship opportunities and source scholarships for both young mothers and boys.
The strategies are promoting and normalising education of teen mothers, providing regular mentorship avenues as well as supporting a more inclusive and dynamic educational landscape.
First Lady Rachel Ruto, who attended the launch, asked women professionals from Nyanza to invest in helping boys and girls from poor backgrounds to access better education.
The First Lady urged the women to learn from [the late] Tom Mboya on fighting against poverty at the community level. He initiated the airlift programme in the 1960s, enabling hundreds of school children and young people get better education abroad.
“Just by the investment Mboya made in enabling the poor get quality education abroad, he helped people like Barack Hussein Obama Snr, whose son, Barack Obama, later became President of the US,” she said.
The group patron is ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo.
Deputy President’s spouse Dorcas Rigathi urged the group not to only focus on girls but also on boys so no part of society is left behind.
“The fate of girls and boys is tied together,” she said.
“There is no need to separating the two because we need to develop in a manner that leaves no one behind.”
Owalo said the group was not for politics but to focus solely on investing in women in Nyanza and seeking to change the narrative in the region.
The lobby also lists striving for financial inclusion, networking and partnerships and fighting food insecurity and climate change as the pivotal objectives in the next five years.