International Partner Stories

Our international partners accomplish amazing things with volunteers. Read their stories.

Volunteer assistance is critical to enabling our international partners to create change in their communities. Many of them have shared the work they were able to accomplish with the help of international volunteers. Read their stories below.

Survey Planning print story

August 18, 2011

SOTENI International, Kenya
Kathryn Spectorsky

After doing my research on the healthcare in Kenya, I set out to design a survey that would allow me to assess the health knowledge of the local communities. I started by writing down the questions that I formulated about the people living around the SOTENI dispensary.

The survey will be designed to give data that answer the following:
- Do parents understand how HIV, malaria and diarrhea diseases are spread?
- What interventions do families take to prevent disease?
- Do women understand the risk HIV and malaria pose during pregnancy?
- Do women seek prenatal care? Why or Why not?
- What happened during their prenatal visits?
- Do women change any habits (hygiene, nutrition, etc) during pregnancy?
- Where do women give birth?
- Are families aware of Soteni’s Mbakalo dispensary?
- What do families currently use the dispensary for?
- Where else do families go to seek health care?
- What would make it easier to seek healthcare at the dispensary?
- What would they like the dispensary to offer in the future?

By finding the answers to these questions, I hoped to be able to improve the services that SOTENI offers at the dispensary. For example, by looking to see how families prevent diseases and finding they need more mosquito nets, I could then target the prevention services offered at the dispensary.

The next step is to design the actual questions I will ask Kenyans when I am working in Mbakalo.