NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Grounds for Health, an international non-governmental organization dedicated to the prevention of cervical cancer in developing countries, today announced the expansion of its East Africa program to Kenya.  The move into Kenya reflects the organization’s continued commitment to reach women living in high-risk regions and working in agricultural supply chains.  Coffee industry partners providing start-up funds for Kenya include Atlas Coffee, Bennett’s Coffee, Coda Coffee, Peet’s Coffee and Tony’s Coffee. Additionally, this year the organization is celebrating its 20^thyear working in coffee-growing communities.  The organization made the announcement on the eve of this year’s Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual conference taking place in Atlanta, Georgia.

“Kenya presents a tremendous opportunity to scale our impact by reaching more women working in the coffeelands and in other industries such as tea and cut-flowers,” notes Guy Stallworthy, CEO at Grounds for Health.  “We are thankful to our seed funders who are making our expansion possible.”

East Africa has the highest incidence of cervical cancer in the world and it’s the number one form of cancer among women living in Kenya.  Currently there are 3.1 million women in the country who are at risk for the disease.   Initially, the Grounds for Health program will focus on Nyeri County, where approximately 53% of the labor force works on coffee farms and tea plantations or in other agricultural industries.  The region produces the largest volume of high quality Kenyan coffee.

Grounds for Health will work closely with the local Ministry of Health to train medical professionals and community health promoters in an effort to improve the quality of current cervical cancer prevention efforts.