As part of my internship with LVCT, I was invited to attend the 2nd C-it Du-it Learning Event in Homa Bay, Kenya. Although I knew little about community health in sub-Saharan Africa, I was eager to learn. What followed was a thought-provoking and humbling introduction to the realities of healthcare at the community level.
From the airport to acronyms: My journey begins
Arriving two and a half hours before the departure of my domestic flight to Kisumu felt completely normal to me – the product of a deeply ingrained German sense of punctuality. The other passengers, however, seemed to operate on a very different clock, strolling in just as boarding began, entirely unbothered.
My “community health” journey had officially begun. After a two-hour drive from Kisumu to Homa Bay, I found myself thrown straight into my first C-it Du-it meeting. Vicki, Linet, Mandela, and Jared were tossing what felt like endless stream of acronyms my way: WIT, CHP, CHA, eCHIS, SHIF, SHA, CRF, C-it, Du-it… all while preparing questions for the upcoming World Café session. I caught myself thinking, “Oh, I really should have read all those papers Vicki sent me.” But armed with only a pen and a notebook, I decided to dive in and learn by doing. Settling in and starting to understand.
There I was, squeezed into a small windowless meeting room, surrounded by boxes, people, and a topic I knew almost nothing about—not quite sure what would come next.
Settling in and starting to understand
The next morning brought a welcome change of scene: a stunning view from my hotel room window. Lake Victoria lay calm and peaceful in the morning light, as if to balance out the previous day’s whirlwind. Preparations started with breakfast around 8:30 a.m.—in Kenya, time is more of a reference point than a strict schedule, and everyone drifts in within a flexible window. It was a gentle reminder that I’d crossed not only borders but also cultures of time.
Vicki found the perfect task for me, one that helped me piece together the “community health” puzzle: printing handouts. The day passed quickly, and it was exciting to see everything coming together.
The moment everything “clicked”
“D-Day” arrived—the first day of the Learning Event. As mentioned, time is understood as a reference point, so participants began arriving from 7:30 am instead of the scheduled 8:00 am, while we were still busy printing and setting up.
As a former project manager for international medical conferences, where timing is everything, I took a deep breath and focused on being useful: preparing name tags, distributing masking tape, and greeting people as they arrived. Through these small tasks, I began to understand that behind all those acronyms were real people, communities full of dedication, passion, and ambitious goals to improve the health of pregnant women and their babies with very limited resources.
As the event went on, my understanding deepened. I learned about the many challenges mothers face in Kenya: missing identity cards, lack of health insurance, financial hardship, limited access to care, stigma, malnutrition, malaria, helminth infections, HIV, and shortages of medicines and testing kits.
From that moment, I felt a deep admiration for the Work Improvement Teams (WIT), Community Health Promoters (CHP), Community Health Assistants (CHA), the C-it researchers, the Du-it mentors, and the entire LVCT Health team, who continue their incredible work despite financial challenges and funding cuts.
What I learned in Homa Bay
For me, these few days were more than just a professional experience; they were a lesson in resilience, empathy, and what it truly means to serve a community. I left Homa Bay not only with new knowledge but with a profound respect for everyone working to strengthen community health systems across Kenya and beyond.
If you want to know more about the C-it Du-it project, please visit: https://cit-duit.org/
