First Lady secures support for Beyond Zero in US

By participating in the half marathons and championing conversations on conventional and social media, Kenyans successfully stimulated social dialogue on improved health, seeking behaviour and social accountability for the health of mothers and children.Pic:Photo Courtesy

First Lady secures support for Beyond Zero in US

CAMBRIDGE, USA, Jun 14 – First Lady Margaret Kenyatta on Wednesday secured more support in the US for the Beyond Zero campaign, that targets eliminating maternal and neo-natal mortality as well as HIV infections among women and newborns.

At a meeting with the First Lady at Cambridge, Hon Mark Dybul, MD, who was recently in Kenya to discuss support for the Universal Health Coverage, pledged to use his wide experience as a global health expert to enable more Kenyans access quality healthcare through the Beyond Zero initiative.

“The work you are doing to take healthcare services to the communities at the grassroots level is quite incredible and we will support it in the best way we can,” Dr Dybul said.

Dr Dybul is the Faculty Co-Director of the Center for Global Health and Quality, and Professor in the Department of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center.

He is also a Board member of the Big win Philanthropy that funded the Annual Harvard University Leadership Forum on Health and Education that was address by the First Lady on Monday.

The First Lady welcomed the support from the renowned global health expert and humanitarian and presented him with a copy of the second strategic plan for the Beyond Zero campaign that aims at securing gains made in the past five years. The First Lady launched the second strategic plan for the Beyond Zero campaign in March this year.

The meeting – attended by Ms Constance Gakonyo, the Chief of Staff in the First Lady’s office, and Kenya’s Ambassador to the US Robinson Njeru Githae among others – also discussed ways of integrating Beyond Zero’s networks with the community to advance use of health data to inform policy and healthcare service delivery.