In rural communities like Buburi, the majority of women give birth at home and are often uninformed about the importance of antenatal check-ups and having a trained midwife present during the birth. This significantly increases the risk of either the mother or her baby dying during birth. Friends of Buburi are therefore delighted to welcome midwife Joyce Lozi Dodoy to the Buburi Clinic team.
After working as a patient attendant at a hospital in Mombasa, Joyce undertook the two years training to qualify as an Enrolled Midwife. She has since spent the last 44 years working as a midwife, providing antenatal services and attending home births.
Joyce moved to Western Kenya with her husband and seven children where she worked at Holy Family Hospital in Nangina for 18 years, which is where she met Esther (Buburi Clinic nurse) and Oda (Buburi clinic manager), and more recently at the Child & Family Welfare Clinic in Funyula.
By employing a qualified midwife Buburi Clinic will be able to run an antenatal clinic which will identify those women at increased risk during labour and delivery, meaning that they can be referred to hospital. Joyce will also be able to attend home births and as soon as we have enough funds to build an extension at the clinic Joyce will start a delivery service too.
After her first few weeks at the clinic, Joyce tells us how she’s finding it: ‘I like to be kept busy. My previous job was very quiet, I may have seen 1-2 patients a day as the patient costs were too high and kept people away.
‘The people of Buburi are so lucky to have this facility and I am very glad to be able to work here. It is the best facility I have seen and much better than anything available to the people in Funyula. I have worked with Oda and Esther before and am very happy to be working with them again.’
I’m sure all our supporters will join us in welcoming Joyce to the Friends of Buburi team and we will keep you posted of her progress.