How we started
Emmanuel Community Empowerment Network was founded as a Support Group in 2019 by Ms. Pamela Adoyo, a Psychologist and Researcher by profession, a survivor of chronic health illness, a Community Home Based Care Advocate, and a trained Community NCD, AHD and Home Based Care Trainer.
After her own journey as a survivor, Pamela was working in the villages of Homa Bay as a Home Based Care volunteer. Every day she was entering homes where she found the same heartbreaking situation.
Why we started
“I saw how young women and people with advanced NCDs (Non-Communicable Diseases), AHD (Advanced HIV Disease), Cancer, and Sickle Cell Disease were suffering at home without any care and support. They were hidden, stigmatized, in pain, and forgotten by the system. Some had given up hope. As a survivor myself, I knew that pain. As a psychologist, I saw the trauma. As a researcher, I saw the gap.”
After seeing this suffering, Pamela was inspired to share the way forward with other community members, starting small and sharing what she knew about home based care, adherence, nutrition, mental health, and hope.
She started with a small circle of other survivors and caregivers in their homes. They met to encourage each other, share medicine, share food, pray together, and learn how to care for each other at home. That small circle became our first Support Group Home Based Care Team.
How it grew
Pamela did not start ECEN with money or an office. She started it with lived experience, professional skill, commitment, and volunteerism.
Seeing the commitment and the volunteering for community services, Pamela reached out to other community support groups, CBOs, and individuals for partnership. One group introduced another, one survivor brought her neighbour, one caregiver brought her church group.
That voluntary partnership has grown into this Network, now 114 affiliates nationally, with 52 members rooted in Homa Bay.
Our inspiration
Lived experience and professional calling
Survivor leadership
We believe those who have survived chronic illness are the best teachers and caregivers. Let communities lead, Community First.
Emmanuel: God with us
In the darkest home, when a mother is nursing a child with Sickle Cell or Cancer with no medicine, Emmanuel means God has not forgotten them, and neither will we.
Psychosocial and home based care
True healing does not only happen in hospitals. It happens at home, with counselling, food, water, a clean environment, adherence support, love, and dignity.
Three pillars: Health, Food and Water
What started as care for NCDs, AHD, Cancer and Sickle Cell at home has grown into three pillars. A person with AHD needs good nutrition and safe water to take drugs, and a young woman with Sickle Cell needs dignity and health education.
Health
Home based care, psychosocial support, adherence, and referral to the Ministry of Health for people living with NCDs, AHD, Cancer, and Sickle Cell Disease.
15,000+People with chronic illness and their families reached with home based care, psychosocial support, adherence and MOH referral.
Food
Nutrition and kitchen gardens, because a person on treatment needs good food to take their medicine.
5,200Households trained on kitchen gardens, because medicine without food does not work.
Water
Safe water for households with chronic patients, so people can take their drugs safely.
32Water points repaired for households with chronic patients.
Milestones
2019
Survivor-led Support Group founded
2020
COVID-19 response: supporting vulnerable chronic patients with food and adherence
2021
First partnership with 10 other CBOs and support groups in Homa Bay
2022
Joint dialogues on NCDs, AHD and stigma reaching 5,000 households
2023
50 members in Homa Bay County
2024
National growth to 100 affiliates
2025
Integrated approach formalised: Health, Food and Water
2026
114 affiliates and the launch of Strategic Plan 2026-2030
“Let Communities Lead, Community First.”
We are open to working with the Ministry of Health, individuals, organisations, government, partners, philanthropists, and other stakeholders who share our vision of empowered, inclusive, healthy, happy communities.