Academic work conducted as a trip leader and teaching assistant for MIT D-Lab: Development | Supervised by Megha Hegde and Libby Hsu, accompanied by Shulammite Lim (M.Eng '23) and Soad Mana (MCP '23) | Kenya, 2023
The severe droughts affecting Kenya have led to increased food insecurity and rising rates of child malnourishment and mortality. To combat this, the Turkana Basin Institute, along with the county government and other NGO partners, identifies and provides supplements to malnourished children through its mobile clinic program. The mobile clinic measures the children’s weight, height and middle upper arm circumference (MUAC) to determine whether they qualify for supplements, but the process of measuring height has proven strenuous. This taxing method provides an opportunity to innovate and improve the mother, child, and health workers’ experiences by developing a better measuring tool. In addition, the project looks at the larger public health ecosystem in Turkana county - including data management systems for recording health information collected by community health volunteers; a unified platform for coordination of efforts of the various international development organisations working on the ground; and an assessment of the condition of the public health facilities in Turkana. This initial project assessment laid the foundations for future collaborations between students of MIT and the Turkana Basin Institute and helped developed pedagogy for D-Lab’s work in Kenya. We facilitated a co- creation workshop between mothers, CHVs and medical practitioners to identify problems with the UNICEF tool and to redesign solutions.
More information can be found here.
