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HEALTH · COMMUNITY ADVOCACY4 May 2025

Women of faith on the frontline.

After the planning came the people: the second activity of Okoa Mama na Mtoto was implemented with religious women leaders — advocating maternal and newborn health, because in Garissa the calendar and the congregation meet.

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The original post@Fountain_FOH · X

“Second activity of the Okoa Mama na Mtoto initiative, this time working with the religious women leaders advocating for maternal and newborn health. #icrhk”

4 May 2025 · @Fountain_FOH on X
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In Garissa, the message travels furthest when the community itself carries it. That is why the second activity of Okoa Mama na Mtoto was implemented with religious women leaders — the women whose trust reaches further than any billboard, advocating maternal and newborn health from the place people already gather. 4 May 2025.

The congregation as the classroom

The congregation as the classroom.

Women religious leaders gather for the second activity of Okoa Mama na Mtoto — advocating maternal and newborn health from within their communities.

Frame 01 / 03Religious women leaders at the second OMMI activity

The women of faith, gathered — the messengers who never need a microphone.

OMMI activity 02 · 4 May 2025
Frame 02 / 03The gathering of religious women leaders for maternal and newborn health

A gathering that carries advocacy into every congregation that trusts it.

OMMI activity 02 · 4 May 2025
Frame 03 / 03Religious women leaders in discussion on newborn health

The second activity in action — maternal and newborn health, spoken in the community’s own voice.

OMMI activity 02 · 4 May 2025
— The story —

The second activity, in the field.

This is the moment the initiative moved from the planning table to the field: religious women leaders taking up advocacy for maternal and newborn health. Their congregations are Garissa’s oldest communication network.

When a woman of faith speaks of a mother’s survival, families listen — and act.

4 May 2025
Garissa County, North Eastern Kenya
Okoa Mama na Mtoto · activity 02
Note for the team: captions are drawn from @Fountain_FOH’s post (4 May 2025, #icrhk). Confirm photo-to-person attribution against the originals before publishing.
The discussion, unpacked

The church, the mosque, the health room.

Why religious women leaders are central to maternal and newborn health advocacy — and where this first gathering led.

01 Why the faith network

No office, poster or radio slot opens a Garissa home the way a religious woman leader can. The second activity of Okoa Mama na Mtoto worked with exactly that authority — advocating maternal and newborn health through the leaders families already trust and turn to for guidance.

Health advocacy rooted in faith is not softer and not slower — it is durable, repeated week after week in the language of the community.

02 What the women of faith carry

The message
Maternal and newborn health, carried into congregations week after week.
The trust
A woman of faith’s word travels further than any awareness campaign.
The continuity
Part of a sequenced year of advocacy — from planning, to faith leaders, to the budget rooms.
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Second activity of the Okoa Mama na Mtoto initiative, this time working with the religious women leaders advocating for maternal and newborn health. #icrhk
Fountain of Hope · Okoa Mama na Mtoto, on X

03 From the second activity onward

Activities three and five came next — working meetings, county health leadership and the budget conversation. The women of faith who began in activity two are the voice carrying that advocacy doorstep to doorstep, long after each meeting ends.

The day in photos

Women of faith, in conversation.

Four photographs from the day. Click each one to view it full screen.

Support the work

Stand with the women who lead this change.

Your support stands beside the women of faith carrying maternal and newborn health into every Garissa congregation.