Narok County, Kenya
You can power a clinic where mothers give birth by phone flashlight.
$5,000 gives one clinic backup power for 7 years. 15 clinics need you.
$0 raised
$75,000 goal
The Problem
What happens when the lights go out.
Picture a mother in a small clinic in Narok County, Kenya. She is in the middle of giving birth. Then the power goes out. No lights. No fetal monitor. No oxygen concentrator. No way to sterilize tools. The nurse pulls out her phone and uses the flashlight.
A woman's lifetime risk of pregnancy-related death in sub-Saharan Africa is 1 in 55, approximately 250 times higher than in Western Europe. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 85% of the world's unelectrified population, with 451 million rural residents still without electricity. A randomized study of rural health facilities in Uganda found that reliable electricity averted an estimated 61% of maternal deaths. These are not isolated problems. They are compounding failures that converge in the delivery room.
208 outages per year
At Olosho-Oibor Dispensary, serving approximately 3,000 patients with a single nurse-midwife, experiencing 4 to 6 power outages per week lasting 2 to 6 hours each. 57% of operating hours are lost to power outages.
"Hospital mortality risk increases 43% per outage day exceeding two hours."
Apenteng et al., 2018
Olosho-Oibor Dispensary, Narok County. One of 15 clinics that will receive backup power through this pilot.
