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Chepkirui Hildah

Chepkirui Hildah - 2019 Winner
Position: Nursing officer
Organization: County Government of Kericho
Current Location: AFRICA-KENYA
Masters in Global Health Delivery from University of Global Health Equity
Additional Degrees and Certifications:
BSc Nursing and Public Health from Kenyatta University
Awards Received:
  • Award:
    Chevening Award
    Awarding Organization:
    Foreign and Commonwealth Office
    Date Awarded:
    June 6, 2019
  • Award:
    Kericho Youth Governor
    Awarding Organization:
    Youth Governors kenya
    Date Awarded:
    July 24, 2018
  • Award:
    Young African Leadership Initiative
    Awarding Organization:
    YALI RLC
    Date Awarded:
    July 14, 2016
75 Public Votes Reached!
Through the Centre for Community Empowerment and Development (CECED) initiative that Hildah established in 2013 to empower youth and women economically at grassroots’ levels, – Nominator
Describe your contributions to and achievements in family planning.

I established the Centre for Community Empowerment and Development (CECED) Initiative in 2013 to empower youth and women with reproductive health information. I led program dubbed Mobilizing Girls and Women for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights through sports that benefited over 5000 girls with reproductive health information leading to many freely seeking, demanding and utilizing reproductive health services, including family planning at various hospitals. In 2017, I organized youth in developing the County Integrated Development Plan 2018-2022 to factor youth reproductive health agenda. This budgetary advocacy process resulted in factoring of youth-friendly services that will see the provision of family planning services to the Kericho youths.

What sparked your passion for family planning?

In my childhood, I was sexually harassed and sex was and still a taboo subject. This coupled with rampant teenage pregnancies amongst my peers inspired me to pursue nursing in a quest to reverse the trend. In 2016, upon appointment to serve as a nursing officer, I identified the worrying trend of suicide attempts secondary to teenage pregnancies in a medical ward, many dropping out of school and others giving birth to premature babies who ended up malnourished and others dying during delivery.

Give one or two examples of how you display leadership in your family planning work.:

I have developed a parenting skills curriculum that equips parents and caregivers to talk to their children on matters about sex including family planning. The curriculum has been used to train 1096 caregivers who take care of over 70,000 OVCs in Kenya. Evenly, I was part of the team who led in reviewing Kenya youth policy, especially on youth health with an emphasis on reproductive health in 2018 which is currently on final stages.

If you are named a winner of 120 under 40, how will you use this new platform and the $1000 grant to advance your work? :

I will use part of funds to build the capacity of leaders from all sectors on how their investment in family planning can accelerate demographic dividend. Additionally, I will bring together organizations working on reproductive health to form an FP alliance that will further pool resources and champion family planning beyond the county level. Finally, I will utilize some funds in promoting activism via social media platforms that would create more awareness on family planning.

Photos of the nominee in the field/at work
Mobilising youths for SRHR Leading young women in developing memorandum for 2018/2022 CIDP Conducting sensitisation session on family planning among youth

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