Since its establishment in 1998, the objective of the EJ Rihoy Charitable Trust has been to improve livelihoods and increase opportunities of some of the worlds most impoverished communities.
Our recent Kenya trip gave us the opportunity for an update on the Segera Mission Foundation (SMF) hospital project in Laikipia, Kenya. This is a great example of how the Trust’s principle of working with local institutions and leadership maximises impact and creates complimentary opportunities for development. We set out to fund a 20-bed maternity clinic but thanks to the initial support of the Trust and Guernsey Overseas Aid & Development Commission (GOADC), this seed funding was leveraged by our local partners, the Segera Mission Foundation, to gain considerable additional support from the Kenyan Government, and Kenyan supporters. The result is the expansion of this project into a fully-fledged County referral hospital.
Once finished, it will be a key referral centre for Laikipa County, offering essential medical services to hundreds of thousands of people who currently have only occassional access, if any, to limited health care facilities. The hospital will have everything from maternity and paediatric care to surgery and recovery units for both men and women. The construction of the hospital has also resulted in multiple additional benefits, including electrification of its location, improved roads and connectivity and provision of clean water supplies. In addition, local benefits extended to employment and training of construction workers in the Laikipia area together with the transfer of construction and engineering skills and knowledge from the wider region. We will have a piece on the site manager of the project, Jim Evander from Laikipia, in the coming weeks.
Our MD Dan Taylor, who is also a Director of the Trust, Dr. Liz Rihoy, Trust Chairperson, and Patricia Wangui, Trust Treasurer, were joined on the visit by members of GOADC and His Excellency Joshua Irungu EGH, the Governor of Laikipia County.
The pictures show the impressive progress on both the exterior and interior of the project, built to a sustainable design. Despite dealing with five months of non-stop rain after nearly ten years of severe drought, the construction team have made great progress and we’re expecting it to be completed by the middle of 2025.
Posted: 12 July 2024