A community health worker in rural Kenya is grappling with the loss of a mental health wellness program. She said: “Life has become very difficult. Sometimes I have problems, but I have nobody to talk to because the community saw us as their pillar, and now I can't go back to cry to them.”
Date: 12/25
Region: Africa
Country: Kenya
Topic: Health
Policy Lens: Global Health Security
Entry Type: Field Observation
Additional Context: This quote is attributed to Grace Nekesa, who most recently spent her time training local youth on mental health and strategies to prevent HIV and sexually transmitted infections through a now terminated USAID-funded program. In early 2025, abrupt and sweeping U.S. foreign assistance cuts left community health workers — and the children they serve — in limbo. Nekesa worked on the mental health wellness program called MiCARE through implementing partner LVCT Health. The program closed in April 2025.
This quote was collected as part of The Aid Report’s original reporting, “‘I can’t just leave them’: Kenya’s health workers carry on without pay.” The feature story examined how nearly a year after the US cut much of its health funding to Kenya, unpaid community health workers still underpin HIV and mental health care.
Source: Devex