💙 Why Events Like the Kilifi Health Symposium Matter to Our Girls and Communities

By Deo Okoko

This year marked our second year of participation in the Kilifi County Biennial Health Scientific Symposium as part of the county’s health stakeholders. For us at Moving the Goalposts (MTG), being part of this forum is more than just showing up it is about learning, sharing, and shaping how we continue to serve our girls and communities better.

The rich discussions at the symposium are already helping us reflect on and strengthen our own health programmes. As we listened to health workers, researchers, county leaders, and partners, one message was clear: working together is key to better health outcomes. These conversations will help guide how we improve our health work going forward, with a stronger focus on collaboration and partnerships.

Our participation this year was made possible through the STRIDES Project, which fits closely with the theme of the symposium on sustaining quality and affordable healthcare for all. Through STRIDES, we work with girls and young people at the community level to improve health knowledge, promote safe behaviours, and link them to services. Being at the symposium helped us connect this community work to the bigger health plans of the county and learn how we can work even more closely with other stakeholders.

Through our booth, we shared stories from the football fields, schools, and villages where girls find safe spaces, support, and hope through MTG programmes. We also listened to others and built new relationships that will strengthen how we serve our communities.

Reflecting on her first day at the symposium, our Health Coordinator, Alice Tama, shared:

“The biggest lesson for me is that prevention is better and cheaper than treatment. I was inspired to see how digital tools are now supporting mothers, and reminded how strong referrals from the community can save lives. It showed me just how powerful collaboration really is.”

For the girls and families we serve, what is discussed in meeting rooms and conference halls directly shapes their daily lives from access to care, to information, to safe and dignified services. When leaders commit to better health systems, the impact is felt in homes, schools, and communities.

As MTG, we leave this year’s symposium encouraged and challenged to do even more, to strengthen partnerships, improve our health work, and keep putting girls and communities at the centre of everything we do.

Together, step by step, we continue to move the goalposts. 💙⚽