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When Eran Maina (’27) and Scott Perkins (’26) met while participating in the Health Coach Program at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, neither anticipated eventually starting a similar program for youth in Kenya. At Wooster, students in the Health Coach Program were assigned patients with chronic illness in the local community. The students checked on their patients weekly to evaluate their physical, social and mental well-being and then reported their findings to doctors at the local community hospital. Witnessing the impact of this program on the rural Wooster community, Eran was inspired to begin a similar program in his ancestral village in Kenya and reached out to an experienced health coach, Scott, to collaborate toward this goal.
In 2019, Eran and Scott co-founded the Vito Moja Health Scouts with the purpose of promoting wellness and awareness of chronic disease in Embu, Kenya. The Health Scouts name was inspired by the U.S. Boy and Girl Scouts. They combined the name with Eran’s family’s 501C3 non-profit Vito Moja, which has been active in the Embu community since 2007.
The Health Scouts offered a much-needed healthcare angle to the organization’s work. For years, Eran had witnessed the growing scourge of chronic illness within a rapidly modernizing Kenya where individuals are living longer but adopting less healthy Western diets. The Health Scouts sought to address this issue through education, creating a five-day educational program geared toward Kenyan youth (typically fifth to eighth grade students) that teaches them about topics such as blood pressure, blood sugar, mental health and hygiene, to name but a few. This program encourages students to stay in school and pursue health careers.
After the first Vito Moja Health Scouts visit to Kenya, feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The Health Scouts added trips in 2022 following a brief halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic that closed Kenyan schools.
This past December, 35 Kenyan students from four schools were invited to come learn alongside the Vito Moja Health Scouts. Each morning began with a seminar about the day’s topic and included case-based studies, lectures, demonstrations and more. The afternoon was dedicated to a practical session; students were taught all the skills they need to help people within their own communities. On the last day, students were given the opportunity to bring their skills together and demonstrate in front of the community what they learned.
Scott notes that one of the most rewarding aspects of running the program is the interest and involvement from the communities.
“On the last day, the students demonstrate the practical skills they’ve learned and present about the knowledge they’ve gained. We invite the parents to attend, but we know how busy they are so we don’t expect every parent to show up. On that day last December, however, the room was packed with so many parents and other community members that we had to move chairs to make everyone fit. Their support and their excitement to learn was so rewarding to see,” says Scott.
Since the first official visit to Kenya, the Vito Moja Health Scouts have experienced superb growth. The group is now reaching multiple schools, and the number of trained Health Scouts has increased to 67. Engagement from the community and interest from Kenyan education officials have increased immensely.
The Vito Moja Health Scouts hope to continue growing and expanding their curriculum as well as their network. The long-term goal of the program is to integrate their lessons in more Kenyan schools across the country. The group has collaborated with Kenyatta National, East Africa’s largest hospital, and established an interest group within the CCLCM focusing on fundraising, curriculum design and medical reallocation elements.
In summer 2023, eight CCLCM students will travel to Kenya to teach more Health Scouts. This growth wouldn’t have been possible without key people who helped get the Health Scouts off the ground, both in the U.S. and Kenya, including many years-long partners of Vito Moja.
“The biggest lesson here is that it takes a community of people to make something happen, and when you come together as a community, you can have an even greater impact than you initially thought was possible,” Eran says.
