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HEALTH · ADVOCACY & PARTNERSHIPSNairobi · 9 May 2024

Four counties, one table — grassroots champions heard.

In May 2024, grassroots women health champions from four counties gathered at the newly opened Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) Kenya office — to meet Madam Rachel Toku-Appiah, Director for Policy, Advocacy and Communications in Africa, and to share their experience and impact.

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The original post@Fountain_FOH · X

“Met Madam Rachel Toku-Appiah, the Director for Policy, Advocacy and Communications in Africa at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Grassroot women health Champions from 4 counties shared their experience and impact. The meeting was held at the newly opened BMGF kenya office.”

9 May 2024 · @Fountain_FOH on X
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When a global foundation opens its first Kenya office, the room it chooses to fill belongs to the people the work exists for. At that meeting were grassroots women health champions from four counties — not to be spoken to, but to share their experience and impact with Madam Rachel Toku-Appiah — the Director for Policy, Advocacy and Communications in Africa. A seat at the table, Nairobi, 9 May 2024.

The story, in frames

Experience as the evidence brought.

Grassroots champions do not bring charts — they bring experience and impact, and at the new Gates Foundation Kenya office, someone with the power to amplify policy sat down to listen.

Frame 01 / 03The newly opened Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Kenya office

The newly opened Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Kenya office — a room that heard grassroots voices.

BMGF Kenya · 9 May 2024
Frame 02 / 03Madam Rachel Toku-Appiah in conversation with grassroots champions

Madam Rachel Toku-Appiah — Director for Policy, Advocacy and Communications in Africa — in conversation.

BMGF Kenya · 9 May 2024
Frame 03 / 03Grassroots women health champions from four counties sharing their experience

Grassroots women health champions from four counties, sharing experience and impact.

BMGF Kenya · 9 May 2024
— The story —

A table where grassroots spoke.

The newly opened Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Kenya office hosted the meeting. On the other side of it: Madam Rachel Toku-Appiah, the Director for Policy, Advocacy and Communications in Africa.

Four counties’ champions shared their experience and impact — the reason meetings like this exist: to put grassroots evidence where policy is decided.

9 May 2024
Nairobi, Kenya · BMGF Kenya office
Grassroots champions · four counties · BMGF leadership
Note for the team: captions are drawn from @Fountain_FOH’s post (9 May 2024). The four counties represented are not named in the post — confirm them before publishing.
The discussion, unpacked

A door opening in Nairobi.

What a newly opened office means, and why grassroots champions were the first to walk in.

01 Why the door mattered

The newly opened BMGF Kenya office is a signal: a global foundation choosing Nairobi as a base for its Africa work. For grassroots champions, it meant a physical door to walk through — and they did, with their counties and their impact in hand.

02 Who was in the room

The table
Grassroots women health champions from four counties shared their experience and impact.
The listener
Madam Rachel Toku-Appiah, Director for Policy, Advocacy and Communications in Africa at BMGF.
The room
The newly opened BMGF Kenya office, Nairobi, May 2024.
“
Met Madam Rachel Toku-Appiah, the Director for Policy, Advocacy and Communications in Africa at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Grassroot women health Champions from 4 counties shared their experience and impact. The meeting was held at the newly opened BMGF kenya office.
Fountain of Hope · on X, 9 May 2024

03 Experience is the evidence

Policy is written where the numbers live. When champions from four counties share what actually happened — the mothers reached, the practices changed, the barriers named — they hand the people closest to the work the authority of experience. That is advocacy, and it is how a grassroots movement moves policy.

The meeting in photographs

At the table, in frames.

Three photographs from the newly opened BMGF Kenya office, 9 May 2024. Click each one to view it full screen.

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