InfoAFYA's Progress So Far:
Making a difference in Kenya’s Health Landscape

InfoAFYA has made significant strides in its mission to improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations in Kenya.

Through its health assistant service and other strategic partnerships, InfoAFYA has reached over one million Kenyans, providing them with vital health information in the last year. In this article, we'll explore the strategies that drive its success and the positive effects it has on communities.

Supporting Malaria Social Behaviour Change (SBC) Campaign

InfoAFYA aligns with the fourth objective of the Kenya Malaria Strategy (KMS), which aims to achieve an 80% utilization rate for appropriate malaria interventions by 2023. Through the deployment of strategies such as SBC, InfoAFYA aims to increase knowledge on malaria and promote positive health-seeking behaviors among vulnerable populations.

InfoAFYA's approach includes:

• Delivering malaria health promotion content through user-preferred formats and channels
• Supporting a comprehensive messaging repository accessible to users in various formats and at any time, ensuring content availability according to regional malaria risk levels
• Maintaining detailed campaign records, including the number of individuals reached and the type of campaign consumed by key vulnerable populations

The campaign engages vulnerable households through two channels: direct engagement via InfoAFYA Health Assistant SMS platform, and indirect engagement via InfoAFYA partners, especially for diverse groups such as refugees.

Co-Creating Effective Malaria Prevention and Control Health Promotion Content

InfoAFYA employs co-creation and participatory design methods to develop Social Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) content focused on health promotion.

For the campaign, human-centered design techniques were utilized to identify vulnerabilities and information gaps among vulnerable households. Through focus group discussions and the use of stimuli materials, valuable insights were collected while adhering to strict ethical standards. The co-creation approach proved highly effective in refining SBCC messages, ensuring they were clear, simple, and addressed the diverse needs of the audience.

Directly Engaging Kenyan Households

InfoAFYA's direct engagement with Kenyan households has been pivotal in disseminating health information. This approach involved the efforts of over 800 Community Health Promoters (CHPs) and other county government officials who supported the identification and registration of vulnerable households into the InfoAFYA health assistant service.

CHPs play a crucial role in connecting vulnerable populations with healthcare systems, gathering data at the community level, educating stakeholders about community health needs, providing culturally appropriate health education, and building capacity to address health issues.

Over 305,000 households from Busia, Nandi, Kwale, and Kilifi counties were enrolled into the InfoAFYA health assistant service, reaching nearly 900,000 unique individuals across these regions.

During the campaign, over 150,000 households in Nandi and Busia counties received three key malaria prevention and control SBC SMS messages. Remarkably, 100% of the sampled households reported receiving and recalling these messages. This demonstrates the effectiveness of the InfoAFYA health assistant service in promoting health awareness and improving health outcomes among key vulnerable populations.

Strengthening partnerships with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)

InfoAFYA recognizes the vital role that CSOs play in improving health outcomes for communities in Kenya. To amplify its reach and extend services to even more vulnerable populations, InfoAFYA has sought partnerships with CSOs. By collaborating with these organizations, InfoAFYA leverages their expertise and resources, resulting in more effective and inclusive campaigns.

To understand how, refer to InfoAFYA’s collaborations with International Rescue Committee, Africa Sickle Cell Organization and Africa Media Trust in our  Kenya NGO Alliance Against Malaria (KeNAAM) section.