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HEALTH · OKOA MAMA NA MTOTO25–27 February 2025

Where Okoa Mama na Mtoto first came together.

Before the budgets and the boardrooms, there was a workshop: ICRHk, BMG and women grassroots setting out to implement Okoa Mama na Mtoto (OMMI) — to reduce maternal mortality, child death and morbidity, in service of SDG 2030.

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The original post@Fountain_FOH · X

“We have the opportunity to work with @ICRHk and @BMG to implement the Okoa Mama na Mtoto initiative. We discussed ways of reducing maternal mortality rate, child death and morbidity, accelerating SDG 2030.”

25 Feb 2025 · @Fountain_FOH on X
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Okoa Mama na Mtoto did not begin at a budget table. It began in a workshop — partners, colleagues and grassroots women working out how to run an initiative that would push for fewer mothers lost, fewer children lost, and less suffering that the numbers and the wards still hide. This is the story of those two days, 25–27 February 2025, when the idea first came together.

The story, in frames

Before the budgets, the workshop.

Two days of discussion that became the start of Okoa Mama na Mtoto — with ICRHk, BMG and women grassroots, and JHPIEGO joining the conversation on the second day.

Frame 01 / 03Day two of the Okoa Mama na Mtoto planning workshop

Day two — the discussion turning a plan into practice, driven by the grassroots.

OMMI workshop · 25–27 Feb 2025
Frame 02 / 03Women grassroots around the Okoa Mama na Mtoto planning table

Women grassroots around the table as the implementation path took shape.

OMMI workshop · 25–27 Feb 2025
Frame 03 / 03Partners joining the Okoa Mama na Mtoto conversation, day two

JHPIEGO joins the conversation — partners growing the circle.

OMMI workshop · 25–27 Feb 2025
— The story —

Who was in the planning room.

The table that shaped Okoa Mama na Mtoto held three kinds of authority: the technical partners (ICRHk, BMG), the grassroots women who carry the message, and Fountain of Hope linking them to Garissa. On day two, JHPIEGO joined — strengthening the line on RMCAH+N.

The purpose, agreed together: reduce maternal mortality, child death and morbidity, accelerating SDG 2030.

25–27 February 2025
ICRHk · BMG · JHPIEGO · women grassroots
The wider planning table on the second day of the OMMI workshop
OMMI · 25–27 February 2025

And on day two, the circle grew.

Day 2 kept the momentum — discussion centred on accelerating progress at the grassroots, and JHPIEGO joined the conversation on RMCAH+N.

The discussion, unpacked

An initiative takes shape.

Two days that mapped an advocacy year — the partners who framed it, and the work Okoa Mama na Mtoto set out to do.

01 The workshop that started it

The main discussion at those first meetings: how to implement the Okoa Mama na Mtoto initiative (OMMI) — advocacy to reduce maternal mortality, child death and morbidity. Not a slogan, but a working programme: partners, grassroots women and Fountain of Hope defining what reducing the numbers would actually mean on the ground.

The horizon line was explicit — accelerating SDG 2030 — and in Garissa, that horizon is measured in ambulances, facilities and mothers who arrive in time.

02 Day two, the grassroots lens

Day two was about the places where progress is most needed and most possible — RMCAH+N at the grassroots: reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health plus nutrition, at the level where communities live.

The partners
ICRHk, BMG and women grassroots — the table the initiative was shaped around.
The agenda
Reducing maternal mortality, child death and morbidity, accelerating SDG 2030.
Day two
Grassroots-centred acceleration of RMCAH+N, joined by JHPIEGO.
“
Day 2 of discussions, joining with @JHPIEGO, this time focusing and accelerating progress on RMCAH+N at the grassroots level. It is our desire to see measurable improvement in maternal and child health.
Fountain of Hope · Okoa Mama na Mtoto, on X

03 The activity pages make sense now

Months later, activity five would put Fountain of Hope at the same table as Garissa’s Health and Budget Committees. This workshop in February is where that arc begins — every later topic on this site is a chapter of the initiative shaped in these two days.

The day in photos

The workshop, frame by frame.

Seven photographs from across the two days. Click each one to view it full screen.

Support the work

Stand with the women who lead this change.

Your support grows the initiative that began as a workshop — Okoa Mama na Mtoto, from planning table to delivery room.