Poverty, poor health and overcrowding are some of the many challenges facing communities in Kenya’s urban slums, or informal settlements. Jane Otai knows these issues firsthand. Raised in a slum in Nairobi, Jane is now a senior program advisor for global health nonprofit Jhpiego, where she helps educate women and girls on reproductive health and …
Nairobi, Kenya — SHE’S a 4-year-old girl named Ida, fragile and shy, and when she was raped by a neighbor boy in September, her family tried to have the attacker arrested. Yet the only interest the police showed was to ask for a bribe equivalent to $11.50 to make the arrest, the family says. The …
Nairobi, Kenya — There are a variety of reasons why women in traditional or less-developed societies give birth to many children: religious, cultural, economic, status and lack of adequate information. But one reason that seems so obvious once you think about it — but which seldom tops the list — is the fear that the …
Nairobi – My mother, like her mother, her grandmother, and so on, was born into poverty in the rural village of Rarieda, Kenya. I, too, was born in the village, and lived there until it was struck by a brutal famine when I was two years old. With no food, money, or opportunities, my mother …
INTERVIEW By Bradley Parks Kenya's infant mortality shows the fastest rate of decline among the 20 countries in sub-Sahara Africa, according to the World Bank. Among the possible reasons for this decline are the efforts of public health workers like Aspen Institute's 2013 New Voices Fellow Jane Otai, and targeted new public health projects such …