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At PATH we believe in catalysts for change, because we see them every day.
Alongside our partners in the communities where we work, we see people coming together
to make their lives healthier. In more than 70 countries around the world,
PATH helps to spark that change and the hope that comes with it.
So if you’ve ever wondered what a catalyst looks like, for us at PATH, it looks just
like this. In Sango Village in Western Kenya, Luca Ka
Oy Ya, his wife, and six children work *** their small farm. They spend almost all
their time together, but for many years there were important things, even matters of life
and death, they never discussed. *** infection rates in this region are higher than anywhere
else in Kenya, but talking about sex is taboo. So if you can’t even talk about sex, how
do you teach your children to prevent ***, in a country where half of all new infections
strike young people under the age of 24. With no guidance from their parents, teens like
Mercy are on their own to navigate puberty, afraid to ask what’s happening to their
bodies, afraid to ask how to protect themselves against a disease they can’t even name.
So to end the isolation of children from parents and husbands from wives, PATH introduced a
peer family counseling program. Trained facilitators help families learn to open up. Change isn’t
easy. For a man like Luca, it takes courage, but it
is possible. Once divided by tradition, this family is
united by change. These two generations are creating new cultural
norms that can keep them safer from *** and closer to one another. They are heroes and
catalysts for a healthier future. In South Africa, Faneely MKeese is a midwife,
one of many men in the profession. He and his colleagues battle immense health challenges
for new mothers and their babies every day. Here, a woman’s risk of dying in child birth
is 40 times higher than in the US. To help save these women’s lives, PATH trains midwives
like Faneely to be mentors who are now crucial catalysts for change. Faneely mentors dozens
of other midwives. One man, a hero of health. Strengthening the skills of others who bring
hundreds of babies into the world each year. The result: safely delivered babies, like
three-hour-old Oweto, tucked into the arms of a proud and healthy mother.
“Really, it is a blessing, because the babies that have been born, these are the future
of the nation. So when we have a healthy baby that is going to be looked after by a healthy
mother, that baby has got chances of growing, of doing well at school, and becoming somebody who is going
to contribute to the future of the nation.”