Many communities in rural Kenya, including the village of Sitoka, have no roads, making it extremely hard for women and children to get to hospital. Christian Aid provided a rough terrain ambulance as part of the maternal and child health project in Narok County. The ambulance is on call 24 hours a day. Jane
Kukan is one of the hundreds of women who have used the service. She says she owes her life to the ambulance.
Ten days after Jane had given birth, she started to feel pains in her stomach.
The 28-year-old had delivered her daughter, Abigael Resian, by Caesarean in the local hospital and was sent home three days later. It had been a bumpy ride back to the village - but it always is once you leave the main road.
Everything had been going well and she was enjoying being at home with her baby daughter. But one morning she felt stabbing pains and saw that her stitches were bleeding.
It was raining that day and her husband, Francis, was away working in a neighbouring county. The roads were very bad and Jane knew it would be hard to get a taxi to come to her home, even if she could have afforded the 8,000 Kenyan shillings (close to £60) for the fare. She was also worried because her home is
across the Sitoka river, which had burst its banks in the heavy rain.
Jane called her husband to tell him she needed to go to hospital.
Francis said: ‘I was very worried as I was working in Kajiado, which is far away. I
immediately called the chief of Sitoka who gave me the number for Dan, the ambulance driver.
I called Dan, who was very supportive. He assured me that he was driving straight to Sitoka.’
The four-wheel drive ambulance was able to cross the river and reach Jane within the hour, taking her to Kilgoris hospital for a check-up. The doctors discovered that her stitches hadn’t healed properly after the Caesarean - possibly they had ruptured on the journey back to the village. The doctors redid the stitches and told her to move as little as possible so that they would hold together.
Recalling the day, Jane said: ‘Without the ambulance, I’m scared I would not have made it. My husband was away and I could not afford to hire a car. Luckily, my husband called the ambulance. They do not charge us for the service.
‘Without the ambulance, I wouldn’t be alive today, only God knows. Many women in our communities do not make it. I thank God for the ambulance service and for Dan for responding to our calls.’
The ambulance serves several communities in Narok County and is looked after by Christian Aid’s local partner, Transmara Rural Development Programme. Villagers don’t have to pay to use the service to get to hospital, although, as Dan explains, for the return journey people are asked to make a contribution towards its running costs.
‘We ask those who can to pay towards the fuel costs as this is a shared resource and community members are invited to cost-share. Most people find it reasonable and are glad to contribute. This also helps us cover part of the
maintenance costs.’
The ambulance is also used for mobile health clinics in villages that do not have their own local clinic, bringing health services to hundreds of families across the county.
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