Our Mission
Kilifi Kids is a non-profit organization improving access to basic medical care and fighting disease for the most vulnerable in Kenya and other developing countries.
Our Philosophy
We are proud of what we have done and believe our success has a lot to do with how we approach our work. Here are a few key drivers in what we try to do.
Find Good Partners
We are the first to say that we can’t do it alone. Our work is built on finding the best partners-in-class and making friends. Whether working with a U.S. business with a new, open-source technology or a local Kenyan non-profit skilled in family planning, we are constantly looking for industry standouts and skilled professionals that can advance our mission with us over the long-term.
Go Local Or Go Home
At our core, we believe any transformation must be community-driven. We do not seek to parachute into a region and provide all the answers. Our first steps to any new project are to build long-term partnerships with health ministries, business owners, and local leaders–including Rotarians–to create win-win outcomes for all. Our most successful interventions are tailored to their environment and seek to optimize local resources and clinical workflows that align to the preexisting community health strategy.
Measure Your Return
We think of our non-profit much like a business. We want the highest impact we can get from the resources we have available. That means that we don’t invest in an activity without a high pay-off. We want to know that our money is being spent wisely on proven outcomes. We look to deliver low-cost, high-impact investments by innovating with technology, augmenting local assets, and monitoring our work to achieve our desired outcomes.
Our History
It began over email. One Rotarian from Atlanta, Georgia reached out to another from Kilifi, a small village in coastal Kenya.
In 2006, a small project to add four computer labs formed a friendship and spawned a broader pact to do more good in the community.
Recruiting help in the U.S. and Kenya, we jumped into education and partnered with great organizations like KESHO to cover school costs for needy students, where only 10% could afford high school. Yet, we found our real mission in health and the opportunity to transform entire communities.
Under the generous support of the Rotary Foundation and Rotary Clubs in Georgia and across the country, we launched a major 7-year campaign in 2008 to wipe out hookworm and schistosomiasis for more than 60,000 primary-age students at nearly 60 students. We saw dramatic results and infection rates drop from about 32.0% to nearly 0%.
We broadened our work and sought new ways to create more self-sustaining projects. We next turned to mobile health or “mHealth” in 2009, where we could take advantage of the worldwide cell phone revolution to provide health services to anyone anywhere.
We were one of the first and largest interventions of our kind in the world. Over the next years, we brought on staff, opened an office in Nairobi, expanded our funding sources, and found new partners like Medic Mobile to expand our work to central and western Kenya.
With five major campaigns under our belt today, we have touched tens of thousands of lives in the areas of child immunization and antenatal care.
More than a decade since our founding, we continue to advance our work everyday and the impact we have for the most vulnerable to receive basic medical care on a broad scale.
Who We Are
We are proud to have an exceptional team of passionate and dedicated staff and volunteers leading our amazing work. Our team is split between Kenya and the United States and includes a broad set of professions, backgrounds, and talents. Our work comes from the heart and done in the belief that what we are doing matters.
Board Of Directors
Dr. Benjamin Tsofa
Co-Chairman
Kilifi, Kenya
Centre Director – Coast, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)
Marc Olsen
Co-Chairman
Atlanta, GA
CEO, Ivy Hill Health
Michelle Davis
CPA/CFO
Atlanta, GA
Forensic Services Director, PwC
Dr. Charles Mbogo
Nairobi, Kenya
Public Health Entomologist, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust
Lauren Coleman
CPA
Atlanta, GA
Senior Associate, PwC
Moses Kiti
Kilifi, Kenya
Ph.D. Student, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust
