Three Kenyan citizens were honored by the World Health Organization (WHO) over their revolutionary innovations in the health sector.
Geoffrey Omondi, Prof Eunice Kamaara and Dr Fridah Njogu displayed their unique projects to Cape Verde President - Jorge Fonseca, and the WHO regional head for Africa - Dr Matshidiso Moeti, at the bi-annual conference in Praia, Cape Verde.
“A panel of independent evaluators assessed and profiled the innovations in terms of the potential for making an impact as well as the ability to be scaled up in a sustainable way," revealed Dr Moeti.
The three were named among the Top 30 Health Innovators on the African Continent with apps emerging top in the global challenge.
77 countries from across the globe submitted their various entries following the 4-week open challenge.
Dr Njogu and Mr Omondi showcased the applications that they had designed to bolster maternal and child health programmes.
Mr Omondi's project, for example, allows for mother and child health data to be captured on paper by health workers and then scanned, digitized, and uploaded onto a hospital management system even without electricity connectivity.
On the other hand, Prof Kamaara’s project titled African Character Initiation Programme (Acip) was categorized under the social category, focusing on educating adolescents on self-awareness and other things.
Ms Njogu is a public health specialist, Mr Omondi is a bio-statistician with Plan International while Prof Kamaara is based at Moi University.
The three Kenyans were selected from over 2,471 entries received in the first-ever WHO innovation challenge.
