Kinga Africa was founded in the year 2011 by Francis Muthama and registered as a charity in Kenya on the 5th of January 2012. It was inspired by an urge to curtail dental pains after Francis’ mother and wife suffered dental problems. Looking at the oral situation in Kenya, a great need for intervention was born. Kenya has less than 1000 registered dentists serving over 42 million people. Only half of these dentists work in public hospitals hence the great need for dental clinics. Oral health education is very minimal among the populace especially from parents to their children.
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Our Story
KINGA AFRICA STORY
HOW WE CAME TO BE
One of the contributing factors especially in lack of oral health education is that oral health is not considered to be a major part of the general human health. This is the same across the divide; the poor, rich, learned, illiterate, young, old, name them, to a bigger percentage of the population, the teeth do not mean a lot.
The inadequacy of dentists and hygienists in the country has also challenges the implementation of oral health education programs.
Health financing is either by the individual or by a national health insurance scheme that does not cover dental treatment. This locks out the poor from accessing dental services
There are always competing priorities as far as government budgeting and expenditure is concerned. You realize dental pain does not necessarily cause death as malaria, diarrhea and other ailments. This hinders health education. Building of roads and other developmental projects come before this very important area of life. I always fear that 20 years from now we may have all the roads tarmacked, no one dying of malaria, electricity and internet connectivity for all etc, but half of the population is toothless!!!
The fact that Kenya has only two universities that are training dentistry and they each admit around twenty students for the six year course, dictates the increase in people to offer the much needed services including education.
Upon registration, the organization was given some communities to work with. A majority of rural communities all over Kenya have no access to dental health and so the project moves from school to school, community to community educating them on oral health. Because of the prevalence of Infant Oral Mutilation among some communities, the project targets such with aim to clear the myth around the deadly practice.
In the schools
- The importance of the teeth
- How to take care of the teeth
- Teeth destroying foods
- How to brush and floss the teeth
- When to brush
- General hygiene including hand washing
To the communities
- What to do when diarrhea strikes
- All the above
- Teething process
- What causes diarrhea in infants (majorly poor hygiene)
- The dangers of Infant Oral Mutilation
To teachers and community health workers
- All the above
- Main dental diseases, their causes, development, prevention and treatment
- Their role in oral health promotion
We work in partnership with the ministry of health (MOH) and that of education (MOE) at the county level of administration. MOH gives us nurses and clinicians during our free dental clinics. Our school health program runs in collaboration with the public health school program (which is not operational in many rural areas). MOH also organizes Community Health Workers for trainings on health promotion by our project. (The ministry of education arranges our visits to the schools and mobilizes teachers when we organize trainings for teachers.
Our project is the only one in Kenya that is promoting oral health. We pride in what we have been able to achieve so far; educating over 500,000 children on oral health and providing them with free toothbrushes and paste. Training over 5000 teachers and community health workers on oral health and offering free dental treatment to over 9000 patients. We host volunteers who offer free treatment and other services to the needy communities. Just like any other charity, we have challenges including limited and sometimes absence of funding. Finding dental volunteers in Kenya is a problem so we majorly depend on international volunteers who are only available a few times a year.
The project is looking forwards to building a first dental referral centre in Kenya. We are sourcing for partners.
7
Years of Existence
5M+
Children Reached
42
Different Communities
3
Outstanding Programs
47
Regions
