Women’s Group

The team began by visiting a women's group in Namasumbi Village. Groups (often of older women) are formed around a common location or community with the goals of encouragement and empowerment; members help each other with emotional, mental, spiritual, and material support. Their scope is certainly not limited to healthcare, though health needs are often among the chief complaints members bring up. These groups are both a common and crucial component of healthcare in rural Kenya. Their relative informality facilitates trust and open conversation, and poses a useful alternative for heavily bureaucratized (and often unreachable) hospitals. Women’s groups were especially interesting to us because of (1) their decentralized nature, (2) their intimate community involvement, and (3) their status as a valid extension of healthcare outside of the clinic. As such, they can be regarded as a radical departure from highly privatized Western healthcare systems.  

This community group was formed under the leadership of Ms. Agnetta Bwire. The group has about 20 members (the majority being women) from across the Funyula area and meets about once a month. Meetings usually consist of story sharing, prayer, words of encouragement, and a cup of tea. The group’s trust in each other came through immediately, and we quickly realized how interconnected the community was. Further, we were able to get a sense of what made this group (and groups like this) so special: we were able to get a much more holistic view of each person as an individual, rather than as a patient.  

The team visited them during their monthly meeting and was able to give them 1 kg of sugar each.