The Foundation For Tomorrow aims to provide educational scholarships to orphan and vulnerable children, and in so doing we cannot overlook their health and more so because of the environments they come from. We currently have 105 scholars of whom all are provided with medical insurance coverage. Each year we review the packages offered by insurance agencies to make sure we chose what will best serve our scholars.
As of this year, we are covered by the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) which is a government medical scheme initiative. They have special packages for students and it covers a wide range of services including surgery. We particularly chose this because it is accepted by most hospitals in the interiors, i.e rural areas and in the urban as well. A large percentage of our scholars come from rural and semi-rural areas where there are few privately owned hospitals. The risk of getting them other privately funded medical insurance is that most private insurance agencies cover private hospitals whereas in the rural areas there are more government hospitals than privately owned ones. This poses a challenge because a child may miss medical treatment in their home area just because the medical insurance coverage they have is not accepted in the nearest government hospital.
When scholars get ill in school they are taken to the hospital by the school nurses and matrons. If the case is severe and cannot be treated in the nearest hospital to school, the nurses contact TFFT and we take a step further in getting the best medical care. It is mandatory for all scholars to go for health checkups before the school opens each year. We document every health-related issue and concerns of our scholars.
As part of the orientation of our new scholars, we make sure they undergo medical checkup to gauge their state of health. It is during this process that we are able to note down scholars who need special medical attention. Among the 105 scholars, 6 of them are HIV positive, and they have special clinics every month where their progress is monitored and their medication is refilled or changed depending on the progress. The clinics also offer special seminars for children who are HIV positive for them to better understand their health status, how to take care of themselves, the importance of consistently taking their medication and to motivate them to see that there is a bright future for them despite the illness.
The Foundation For Tomorrow avails multivitamins for these scholars, we also give them extra nutritional support like buying them milk and fruits that they take in school; in addition to what is already offered by the school. They are closely monitored and cared for by the school matrons and nurses.
Health and hygiene/ personal care go hand in hand, we teach the scholars to take care of themselves and maintain proper hygiene, the school matrons and nurses are also keen to assure that students take care of themselves in maintaining cleanliness of their bodies and surroundings in order to prevent outbreak of diseases.