Alice's Story
Where are you from?
I come from Ruiru- Kiambu County, Kenya.
What were you doing before Keheala?
I was working at Aon-Minet Kenya as a care manager. Under this role, one of my main duties included vetting and approval of medical claims for payment to the healthcare providers. In addition, I was charged with the duty of reviewing and approving pre-authorization requests from the clients as well as offering wellness and support services to our clients.
I also worked as an associate research consultant for the University of Nairobi Enterprises and Services (UNES consultancy) where my roles included: Bidding for consultancy jobs, writing proposals, preparation of data collection tolls, training and supervising of the research assistants as well as writing final reports for the research findings.
What attracted you to Keheala?
I am very passionate about research as well as interventions that aim at improving quality of life, especially the less fortunate in the society. When I learned of Keheala’s approach to addressing the behavioral determinants of disease in order to improve the health outcomes and quality of life for the tuberculosis patients. Keheala's use of mobile phone technology, which has not been widely used in Kenya, was also of great interest to me. Finally, Keheala’s focus on improving the quality of life for the target group attracted me since it is one of things that I have always wanted to accomplish in the course of my career.
“Having taken care of tuberculosis patients in a public health facility and listening to their stories, the reality of the societal borne challenges that such patients go through in the course of their treatment hit me. Such challenges as stigma, ignorance and lack of access to factual information about tuberculosis have a significant impact on the treatment outcomes and quality of life for TB patients. This role is a great opportunity for me to impact on the patients undergoing TB treatment by offering them support and motivation.”
What is the most meaningful part of your job?
I derive a lot of satisfaction from changing the lives of people and interacting with our patients across various channels that this role provides. Getting to follow up on our participants, listening to their stories and reporting to a bigger audience is not only fulfilling but a great contribution to my career growth.
Describe one of your most rewarding experiences with Keheala.
During my first week at Keheala which was entirely dedicated to training, my most rewarding experience was learning how to engage the entire team in a way that they can participate and identify with the company. During the formulation of the company’s core values, the CEO had every one of us demonstrate their thoughts about the company using pictorial displays. The team members were then asked to give their opinions of the messages portrayed on the images, which led to the generation of a long list of attributes that represents our core values as Keheala. The same was then tasked to reduce the list into four words that strongly represents the company’s core values. This experience was very rewarding because it is a perfect illustration of how to can use simple yet inclusive approach to make important policies that represents the feelings of every member of the team. It also enables the new and existing members of the team to learn more about the company.