The World Bank funded training programme for Enrolled Community Health Nurses (ECHN) aims to specifically populate rural health facilities in hard to reach areas with qualified personnel as a strategy to increase service provision by skilled attendants.
The first cohort of 300 beneficiaries of the World Bank scholarship graduated in December of last year. The second and third cohorts are expected to join the training programme this year
“The aim of the programme is to mitigate the shortage of human resources for health in hard to reach areas through production of a critical mass of enrolled community health nurses equipped with knowledge and skills to provide quality health care to mothers and children in their home areas,” said Leah Bii from the Kenya Medical Training College(KMTC).
The Roche team was led by its Manager for East Africa, Frank Loeffler who pledged support for the training of 100 nurses every year for the next three years.
The World Bank-Beyond Zero partnership is expected to aid in the reduction of maternal and child mortality.
First Lady Margaret Kenyatta thanked the Roche team for agreeing to partner with Beyond Zero and KMTC in the training programme and invited more partners to come on board.
Beyond Zero hopes to sponsor the training of an equal number of nurses, to match the 1200 health professionals trained under the World Bank sponsorship.