Nairobi will have the first Human Milk Bank (HMB) ever in the entire East African region.
The facility will be put up at Pumwani Maternity Hospital after funding from the government of the United Kingdom to a tune of Ksh66.5 million.
The HMB in Nairobi is being funded by the United Kingdom through the Mother-Baby Friendly Initiative Plus (MBFI+).
British High Commissioner to Kenya, Nic Hailey, revealed that the bank would be launched in April.
“Once operational, the milk bank will help save the lives of the vulnerable babies such as those who are premature, orphaned or abandoned, through the nutrition benefit of human milk,” Hailey stated.
Hailey added that they had procured and delivered equipment, including pasteurizer, trained and oriented the hospital technical team on milk bank operations and conducted a learning exchange to Scotland to enable the technical team to learn about quality assurance systems and outreach programmes.
“We have also established a technical working group at both national and county level to provide oversight and ensure adherence to quality and standard and developed guidelines and tools to support operations of the milk bank,” the British High Commissioner elucidated.
He further commended the county government for its commitment to the realisation of the project.
“Working with staff at the Pumwani Maternity Hospital, the county health team have finalized plans for the launch of the milk bank. This will be symbolic of the importance of our respective government to place improving newborn health and life opportunities in Kenya,” he added.
On his part, Governor Sonko expressed confidence that the project would help improve the maternal health care in the county.
“We are glad that the UK government is helping us in this project. This project is very important to Nairobi as a region and also for Kenya at large. It is the first ever in East African region.
“We are in full support of this project because it will transform the maternal health of Kenyan in our country. We are also looking forward to launch it as soon as possible,” he stated.