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Integrated Mobile Health Clinics for Remote Communities in Kenya

Summer 2006

Disciplines involved: Illustration

Faculty: Martha Rich and Esther Pearl Watson  

Overview

Designmatters at Art Center has partnered with two community-based organizations, Mpala Community Trust (MCT) and Nomadic Community Trust (NCT), to develop an innovative design project aimed at greatly improving health outcomes in remote Kenyan communities.

The partnership resulted in an original proposal, Integrated Mobile Health Clinics for Remote Communities in Kenya, which was selected from more than 2,900 projects as one of the 105 finalists in the prestigious Development Marketplace competition, sponsored by the World Bank in May 2007. With the motto “Turning ideas into action,” this international grant competition funded creative, entrepreneurial development projects that have the potential to be expanded or replicated.

In the Laikipia and Samburu districts of northwest Kenya, remote, poverty-stricken communities suffer from a lack of medical care, as well as access to education and family planning. MCT’s existing integrated mobile health clinics make use of trucks, camel convoys, bicycles and foot travel to bring “door-to-door” service to these scattered, nomadic people. Based on evaluation of the current program, Designmatters and MCT have developed a multi-component design intervention to the existing mobile clinic operation.

Key Innovation Components of the Project:

• A multi-function, camel-packaging system to improve efficiency of mobile clinics
• New solar-powered refrigeration units or transport by camel to carry vaccines and medicine requiring refrigeration
• Introduction of culturally appropriate Information, Education & Communication (IEC) health materials
• Integration of solar panels into clinics, providing power for lighting and refrigeration, and to operate monitors and video equipment for IEC health education sessions

Princeton University’s Institute of Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM), which served as a consultant during the earlier stages of the proposal, is now collaborating closely with Art Center to create a prototype of the camel pack which will be tested in Kenya in 2008. Project Concern International (PCI), a nonprofit global health organization based in San Diego, California, has also partnered with Art Center and will conduct additional field testing of the prototype through their program in Ethiopia.

In Fall 2007, IEC health materials were created through a Transdisciplinary Studio hosted by the Department of Illustration at Art Center. Pilot testing of the resulting educational visuals is currently in progress.