Rafiki Afya (Friend of Health) Project
Strategic Pillar: Food, Water & Nutrition Security (FWNS)
Access to safe food, clean water, and adequate nutrition as the foundation of human security and sustainable development. CARE Kenya ensures households have reliable access to nutritious food through climate-smart agriculture, resilient livelihoods, agribusiness development, and integrated nutrition programs.
Key Impacts
180
CHPs trained as Entrepreneurs
18,00
Households reached monthly
216
Total health workers (CHEs + CHAs)
Project Goal & Vision
Improve self-care and preventative practices in underserved communities by piloting a sustainable, scalable Community Health Entrepreneurs (CHE) model that strengthens Community Health Promoters (CHPs) capacity and livelihoods, expands last-mile access to everyday health products, and improves community health literacy (focus areas: oral health; pain & fever management; nutritional deficiencies e.g. anaemia).
Target Groups
180 Community Health Promoters (CHPs) trained and transitioned into Community Health Entrepreneurs (CHEs); plus 36 Community Health Assistants (CHAs) upskilled (216 total direct health workers; training )
~18,000 households (estimated 100 households per CHE reached monthly)
women and girls (≥60% of individuals reached), people with disabilities, older persons and youth; marginalised and low-income households
Expected Outcomes & Reach
CHEs with increased knowledge, motivation, wellbeing and sustainable livelihoods delivering higher-quality services to households (180+ CHEs; 36 CHAs).
Increased household adoption of preventive self-care behaviours and early treatment-seeking on oral health, pain/fever management and nutrition.
Improved access to affordable everyday health products (oral hygiene, pain relief, micronutrient/iron supplements, sanitary products, etc.) at last mile.
Estimated monthly reach: ~18,000 households (100 per CHE).
Scaling & Sustainability
Pilot to generate evidence and co-design a scale-up plan with MOH, Haleon and partners. Explore routes to scale through MOH’s network (100,000+ CHPs) and private health enterprise networks. Emphasis on local leadership, digital systems and Key strengths / added value
Builds on SHE SOARS pilot experience in Kisumu (positive retention and sales data).
Strong partnership mix: CARE’s program and MEAL expertise, Live Well CHE operational experience, Healthy Entrepreneurs supply chain platform, and Haleon technical inputs.
Integrated model combining health literacy, product access and economic empowerment to drive self-care adoption