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HEALTH · OKOA MAMA NA MTOTO19 August 2025

When a budget meeting is a life-saving meeting.

The budget-makers of Garissa County sit with the health executive — CECM Health, Chief Officer, Director for Health, Health Committee and Budget Committee members — and deliberate maternal and newborn health together. The field story, told from the room.

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The original post@Fountain_FOH · X

“On to the 5th activity of the Okoa Mama na Mtoto initiative — with the CECM Health, Chief Officer Health, Director for Health, Health Committee members at the Assembly and Budget Committee members. A fruitful discussion, and deliberations we agreed upon together.”

19 Aug 2025 · 683 views · 9 likes · 2 reposts
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Every five minutes of the meeting, the same truth holds: a mother’s survival depends on staffed facilities, equipped referral and emergency transport — and all of it rests on county budget decisions. On 19 August 2025, Okoa Mama na Mtoto took the conversation to the people who write those budgets.

The story, in four frames

Four frames from the room.

Captured at the meeting, 19 August 2025. Swipe through the room the way the day unfolded — the table, the deliberation, the assembly committee, the working meeting.

Frame 01 / 04The county health leadership table at the OMMI fifth activity meeting

The table where Garissa’s maternal health sits — county health leadership, assembled.

Ommi activity 05 · Garissa
Frame 02 / 04Health, assembly and budget committee members in deliberation

CECM Health, Chief Officer, Director for Health — and the budget conversation begins.

Ommi activity 05 · Garissa
Frame 03 / 04Fountain of Hope and Health Committee members at the County Assembly

Health Committee members at the Assembly — the accountability chain, in the room.

Ommi activity 05 · Garissa
Frame 04 / 04A fruitful discussion on reducing maternal and child mortality

A fruitful discussion, deliberations agreed upon — the field note of a working meeting.

Ommi activity 05 · Garissa
— The story —

Who was in the room.

We sat with the people responsible for Garissa’s maternal and newborn health: the CECM Health, the Chief Officer, the Director for Health, the Health Committee at the Assembly, and the Budget Committee members.

Health leadership and money leadership, at one table — because a mother’s survival depends on both.

Tuesday, 19 August 2025
Garissa County, North Eastern Kenya
CECM Health · Chief Officer · Director of Health · Assembly Health & Budget Committees
Note for the team: captions are drawn from @Fountain_FOH’s post (19 Aug 2025) and the OMMI Year 1 report. Confirm photo-to-person attribution against the originals before publishing.
The discussion, unpacked

What the room agreed.

Where the fifth activity sits in the Okoa Mama na Mtoto Year One, and why a budget meeting is a life-saving meeting.

01 Why a budget meeting

Maternal and newborn deaths are not only a health story — they are a money story. A mother’s survival depends on staffed facilities, equipped referral and emergency transport, all of which rest on county budget decisions. The fifth activity took the Okoa Mama na Mtoto conversation to the people who write those budgets: the Health Committee and the Budget Committee at the County Assembly, with the county’s health executive at the table.

Bringing health leadership and money leadership together into one deliberation is the entire argument of this field note — the money must follow the mother.

02 What was on the table

The working meeting opened with the data and realities of the Okoa Mama na Mtoto landscape, then moved to the decisions the county can make with, and for, its mothers.

The budget gap
A county health budget under pressure leaves too little for the commodities, referral and facilities that save mothers — the very conversation this meeting opened.
The referral chain
Cross-county referrals and emergency transport are a lifeline, yet remain one of the weakest links between a mother, a facility and a skilled birth attendant.
The agreement
Fruitful deliberation, and a commitment the room agreed upon together — carried from the table into the county’s next budget and policy conversations.
“
On to the 5th activity … A fruitful discussion, and deliberations we agreed upon together.
Fountain of Hope · Okoa Mama na Mtoto, on X

03 Where this sits in a year of advocacy

This was not a one-off meeting. It is the fifth activity in a deliberately sequenced year of maternal and newborn health advocacy in Garissa — from county health landscaping, through the women’s faith network and youth champions, into the rooms where resource decisions are made. The topic pages on this site tell the wider story of the whole initiative.

Support the work

Stand with the women who lead this change.

Every meeting, every radio message, every faith gathering is a step toward the day no mother or child is left behind.