In 2009, Change a Life launched a new project with World Vision Australia to develop Community Learning Centres in rural Kenya. These centres are aimed at sharing practical health information to Kenya’s poor and disadvantaged.

Hundreds of Kenyans die each year from preventable diseases. In 2009, the World Health Organisation announced that the life expectancy for a Kenyan male is 58 years old and for a  female, 62 years – these figures have dropped about a decade due to HIV and AIDS. In 2004 the Ministry of Health in Kenya announced that HIV/AIDS was the leading killer in the country, surpassing malaria and tuberculosis. Since 1984 more than 1.5 million Kenyans have died of HIV/AIDS and more than 3 million Kenyans are HIV positive. Each day more than 70 people die of HIV-related illnesses.

It’s not just the adults that struggle with health issues in Kenya, children are also disadvantaged. 84 out of every 1000 children under the age of 5 die each year. The main causes of death are Diarrhoea (20%), Pneumonia (16%) and Birth Asphyxia (10%) – all are preventable diseases in Australia. As you can see the health standards in Kenya are quite grim.

World Vision found that the contributing factor of these deaths is the lack of information and communication across Kenya. Change a Life will help to solve this problem by funding three Community Learning Centres, providing the poor and disadvantaged with access to health-related information. These Centres are not just places for learning and sharing information, but have become community hubs and safe spaces in which important community issues, such as health care, are discussed.