Our Background
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About Our History
Wheels For Life was started when our founder, Dr.Jemimah Kariuki realised that many women were not coming to hospital to deliver during the Covid Pandemic and that there was an upsurge of complications that were preventable due to late referrals. She chose to give out her personal number on social media to any pregnant women seeking help especially during labour. Initially thinking she would only need to guide and offer consultation, she realised that there was a big gap in access to hospitals due to lack of transport. While helping many out of pocket, she sort help from partners to help make the model more sustainable
Notably, she reached out to Dr. Elizabeth Wala who was instrumental in bringing together many partners through AMREF and KHF. What started as a tweet developed into a project supported by many partners including Bolt, Telesky, Rescue ambulances, Amref, KHF, KEPSA, UNFPA, EU, Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) and University of Nairobi to ensure contuinuity of the vision.
Wheels for life has evolved to gain a model that links a patient to a call centre through a toll free number, grant a patient free and readily available consultation and free transport/ transfer from their homes to facilities. This has been made possible by working closely with different stakeholders to ensure that pregnant women and their loved ones are assured that they are well taken care of during this exchange.
Having started in Nairobi county, it has currently spread to include 5 other counties including Nakuru, Nyeri, Uasin Gishu, Kiambu and Machakos counties. It is our hope that our reach will engage their entire country and region to serve even more women. We have currently served over 1,600 women with over 600 dispatches and safe deliveries across the counties.
From the founder : “Wheels for life is a product of God taking care of His pregnant women and children through the willing hands of everyone who wills themselves to plug in and support in whatever means they can. That is the joy of us all. Pregnancy is hard is enough with all the psychological and hormonal changes, no one should feel alone and definitely no woman should lose their life while giving life “