Meet Mary Onyancha, a 40-year-old community health volunteer, who lives in the Moto Moto section of the Mukuru slums in Embakasi, Nairobi. I had a chance to meet Mary when I visited Action Against Hunger’s cholera prevention programs in Kenya this summer. Congested urban areas, particularly slums with poor hygiene practices, are more susceptible to the spread of disease.

We’re working directly with the country’s Ministry of Health and community-based health volunteers to raise awareness through sessions on understanding cholera -- its symptoms, how it’s spread, and how to prevent it. A NFI (non-food item) distribution followed one of these sessions to give out jerry cans, water purifying tablets, and soap.  Here’s where I met Mary, who proudly led her group of community members to collect the items.

Community health volunteer Mary Onyancha is pictured above. Photo: R. Shah

Mary has been a community health volunteer since 2009 and is responsible for keeping track of the health status of 128 households in her community.  She decided to become a volunteer to help her community, which is very poor. I asked her why she continues to do so and what her motivation is and she told me:

“I like to receive health education and I like to educate others. I want to help them get well…those that are sick. Apart from that, I get motivated when I reach out to girls who have been employed at a young age and take them back to school. I get happy when they go back to school.”

The slum where Mary lives and works. Photo: R. Shah

It’s thanks to dedicated volunteers like Mary that Action Against Hunger is able to reach more people and more communities. The heart and soul of our organization is our 6,500 staff members and thousands more volunteers in more than 45 countries around the world.