We identify situations where lack of good health is directly influencing a child’s well-being or future development, or where the bad health situation of a caregiver is making it impossible for him or her to provide proper care and a safe environment for the children under her or his care.
We help the children or caregivers directly by helping them access medical services. This includes paying for some of their medical charges and levies. We network with hospitals where we advocate for waivers on charges. In areas where we lack the capacity, we refer clients to other organizations that can provide the same services for cheaper costs for further case management.

Often (roughly 30% of the cases) we work with caregivers who are unable to be the parents they want to be, due to their health conditions. Helping them with access to health care will then provide a better life and future for all the children they are responsible for.

The help could be diagnostic (scans and lab tests), after which maybe the National Hospital Insurance Fund can pay for treatment and medication. The help can also be to contribute to surgeries, to medication or to therapies.

Where possible beneficiaries are encouraged to raise funds also from families and friends, this increases the dignity and ownership of the process. It also enable Macheo to help more people with available funds.

In 2022 Macheo’s ambition is to help 1,800 children and/or caregivers. This is not yet fully possible due to lack of funding. If you wish to help please contact marnix@macheo.org
Your support will enable Macheo te help more people like “Joseph”.

Joseph’s story

Joseph (not his real name, due to privacy reasons) is 5 years old and the second last in a family of five. His father died last year and he stays with his mother in Kiandutu slum in Thika.

He broke his leg when he was playing with his friends and was taken to Kiandutu health centre for treatment. They were referred to the main hospital in Thika as the health centre has no x-ray machines. The mother unfortunately had no money, so requested for help through one of the employees of Macheo for further support. With Macheo paying for the x-ray, it was found that he had multiple fractures in his leg. Joseph’s leg is now plastered upto the knee level.  

Currently, he is at home, and his mother together with Macheo is hopeful that he will recover and return to school after recovery.

The unit costs in Individual Health Support

Macheo has been working with unit costs since 2019 and this has really many benefits, it helps us to get a better understanding of our costs compared to our impact. It has also really raised the cost awareness of Macheo’s staff, leading to gains in efficiency, thus enabling us to help more children with the available resources.
In this unit costs we have calculated all necessary costs, for 1 child or 1 caregiver.

Macheo can help 1 child or caregiver through Individual Health Support for Kenyan Shilling 6,566 (53 euro)

46% is going directly to medical costs, such as treatments and/or medication. The transport costs are relatively high, because quite often patients need to travel far, and regularly, to get specialized treatment.

Monitoring & evaluation

First step in measuring the difference we make to the children who need our help is to choose who will benefit most from the help we can offer. This choice is being made by holistic social workers who identify the need, look at root cause and refer the children and/or caretakers to help from Macheo colleagues, the Government, or others who are able and willing to help.
The identified needs and root causes are captured in Macheo’s (anonymized) database.
When referred internally our specialist colleagues start with a baseline measurement on the Key Performance Indicators of their specific intervention. During the process they track progress towards this and when completed they rate the clients again. This shows the difference the intervention made. All data is collected through apps on mobile phones and displayed in dashboard, such as the one below, which is specifically for this intervention:

Since these challenges are often complicated, one child or caregiver could receive multiple interventions. After all interventions are completed the holistic social workers comes back to the family and repeats the intake needs assessment. The difference between the first and final needs assessment shows whether the interventions had the desired impact on children’s well-being.

Reporting

We hope you will join us in enabling Macheo to help more children and/or caregivers who need assistance through Individual Health Support. Macheo reports in April, August and December/January. An example of a report can be found here.

Staff

Macheo has 4 great colleagues working with full dedication in this intervention. They are under the management of Ibrahim Hassan, whose own personal story can be read here.

Join us!

Charitable work must be done with care! Have you become enthusiastic about the way we work too? Join us! We can achieve much more together.

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