Rona Foundation Blogs

Remote and underserved areas face many healthcare problems, mainly because it is hard for people in these areas to access medical services. This lack of healthcare often leads to unnecessary deaths and long-term health problems. In 2024, the Rona Foundation, along with Dr. Sara M. Selig from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, co-authored a case study titled “Comprehensive Healthcare in Remote Areas: A Case Study of Rona Foundation.” Supported by a grant from the Atlantic Institute, this study focuses on key strategies and challenges in bringing healthcare to rural communities. The study emphasizes that remote areas need clinics that offer more than just medical care. They need to include social workers, paralegals, and community health workers to provide complete care. This is especially important in communities where many women, including widows, are still dealing with the effects gender violence, HIV and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Healthcare Gap in Remote Areas

In many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and other remote areas around the world, it is difficult for people to get quality healthcare. Some reasons include geographical isolation, poor roads, and underfunded healthcare systems. As a result, many people in these regions suffer from preventable deaths, high maternal mortality, and untreated long-term diseases. Siaya County, Kenya, where the Rona Foundation operates, faces these problems as well. The rough terrain in this area makes it very hard to reach healthcare centers, especially in emergencies.

Rona’s case study highlights these issues and gives ideas on how to fix them. It suggests offering comprehensive healthcare services that include mental health support, legal advice, and social services, not just medical treatment. This approach is necessary to close the gap between healthcare in rural and urban areas, especially in places with few medical resources.

Rona Foundation’s Vision: The Rona Level III Hospital

In response to the challenges highlighted in the study, the Rona Foundation is working on building the Rona Level III Hospital. This clinic will provide a range of services, not just medical care, but also counseling and social services. The Rona Level III Hospital will include doctors, social workers, paralegals, and community health workers. Together, they will provide patient-centered care, meaning they focus on what each patient needs.

Community health workers are especially important because they will help educate people in rural areas about health and provide basic medical services. They will also act as a bridge between the hospital and the community, helping to spread knowledge about healthcare and encourage early treatment. Paralegals will assist with legal issues related to widowhood, such as cases of widow abuse, which is common in the region.

Motorboat Ambulances: Emergency Access

In remote areas like Wagoma Village, where the Rona Centre is located, reaching healthcare centers is often difficult, especially for people living on islands and gulf villages with dilapidated roads. During emergencies like childbirth or accidents, getting to a hospital quickly can mean the difference between life and death.

To solve this problem, the Rona Foundation plans to introduce motorcycle and boat ambulances. These ambulances will help reduce the time it takes to get medical help in emergencies. The boats will have basic life-saving equipment and be staffed by trained paramedics, ensuring patients get some care while being transported to the hospital. This will help connect remote island communities to the Rona Level III Hospital, providing much-needed emergency services.

In truth, remote communities across Africa, face many challenges when it comes to healthcare, and organizations like the Rona Foundation are committed to solving these issues, with funding support. By building the Rona Level III Hospital and introducing motorcycle and boat ambulances, they are working to make healthcare more accessible and complete. The foundation’s focus on integrating medical care with social services and using community health workers will help improve healthcare for people in underserved areas. Also, the case study shows that collaboration between local communities, academia and international organizations can be a powerful way to tackle healthcare problems in remote areas around the world.

Of course, Rona’s vison remains a pipe dream without quality funding towards this, and other such sustainable projects in the region.

Sara M. Selig, MD, MPH is an Associate Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Affiliate Faculty at Harvard Medical School. She serves as a Senior Technical Advisor at Partners In Health and is a Senior Fellow with Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity. And Roseline Orwa, the founder and executive director of the Rona Foundation, a grassroots organisation in Kenya dedicated to widows’ rights