 Elisabeth Wa Mwaia She is a healthcare business development specialist joining us today Kaibutan Elisabeth Thank you very much How are you feeling? Fantastic, fantastic I mean it's a great way to start the month And I think they say Sikunjema Huunekana So definitely the month looks like it will be good Nukosa pimadaraka day Yes, yes Yeah the first of June When we talk about mararaka day Tell us what comes into your mind What are you celebrating today? For Kenya this is big Apart from many resting today It's a lot of taking stock of how it has been the last few years The struggles that Kenyans have gone through And when you look at so much that has happened The development, a medist a lot that has maybe has been a hindrance I must say that Kenya we have taken a great great stride in terms of getting to where we are Even as we now prepare to the transition in the next general elections We can only pray that we continue to make our country bigger and better And now that we are talking about the strength of a woman Do you think we are at a better place when it comes to celebrating women? I must say Ram we've come such a long way Maybe before many would see that it was a form of negative feminists But it's so exciting to see that now men are actually on the forefront Of not only identifying as women in particular positions But they also actually support I must say that I've also seen that also some of them will actually When they realize you have a potential They'll get you out of the comfort zone And actually walk the journey with you So I must also applaud the men because Something good is actually happening But you can imagine if we can start that often Our young sons who are in school just to be able to appreciate each other And for it also to have a balance We'll be able to make sure that the boy child is well catered for So that at the end of the day we don't have one of those things that we are facing Where the women are much empowered But still that's a whole debate of its own Who is more empowered, who is not empowered But one thing is women have come up And they are taking up positions And even as you celebrate this day we also celebrate women And of course I want to know a bit more about what you do As a person for somebody who is meeting you for the very first time today Okay So yes, I'm Elizabeth Pomue And the biggest title I have is being a mother I'm a mother to three amazing children Three I love how you introduced the first one You use grades Yes, index one Index So the son is here supporting women Yes, absolutely I love that passion In fact when I told him about it and he told me Mum, I am joining you tomorrow morning So that becomes my number one supporter An amazing gentleman Let's call Lokwaliwa Loryu Lolel Ngoja tan Ngoja Aya Let's rewind Rewind Me na kumkele The tip Let's take a viral Let's do Zumusheki Dogo Yes Anitwa? Lokwaliwa Lokwaliwa Lokwaliwa And then Loryu Loryu Then Lolel Lolel Yes Lokwaliwa Loryu Lolel Now for you Just call him Loksi We have names for everyone You are a special person You are special You know I love how women get Get to Feel some inspiration from their kids These are also Children inspire a woman Yes Is that true? A lot We said he's index one Then there's my daughter Lokuchal Don't worry We'll write down those names later And my last born son Who's 12 His name is Wamoya And I must say Apart from God Who gives me the daily strength My children form a very big backbone In my day to day My day to day life Why? They also have become Can I say much stronger than I am And you can see how articulate they are In terms of Explaining or anything Or even having a conversation So where does that leave me? I have to be somewhere up there So that I can be able to try and discern What these conversations are And how to respond to them Wow So you have index one, index two And index three Yes Wow That is new I've not met A lady who Who really appreciates their kids In that kind of a manner Index one So does it mean you're more Inclined towards education For your kids As to why you use the word index I think you've just read my mind so well One thing The biggest basis that first of all I give them is Christianity They have to be aligned at least to God And they have to know There's a supreme being that is They are who they are because of God And they must honor that They must honor that And I really thank God for that father They are the type of people who will go somewhere And they'll still pray even when Mum is not there Because mum showed them the way Yes, it's mum And also dad who also played a very big role On the same It's woman Not just mum But also dad I see a lot of wisdom in you Yes, good genius Yes So apart from that education For sure I thank God for his provision The index one you're talking about Has just finished His form for it did very well And he's actually joining one of the Universities in Kenya To pursue computer science And cyber networking Yes Index one ok He's in the studio He's right in the house He's right in the house Computer science and cyber networking Yes Wow, congratulations Yes, thank you so much How does it feel to have raised Three beautiful children Yes And they're doing well And of course We don't matter who isn't easy Yes Wow Ram We all look at the tip of the iceberg But you don't know the work that is down there And looking at also the nature of my work Maybe I'll be able to go back Professionally I'm actually a nurse by profession So meaning all my close to 15 years It's been a lot of service to humanity In the hospitals With the community It's been a lot of service also to family Because also my children They all had a gap of about three Three years So there's a part where All of them were under fives All of them There's a part where they were all under fives And your head was spinning And the next thing you're trying to remember Is today Monday Or is it Tuesday? I might be at work Right Because here you know And balancing was a problem Balancing I can tell you for a fact Is not easy And I actually always have this picture One time Index one Was somewhere hanging here On the neck My daughter Lokuchal was somewhere They are tagging And the little one was actually breastfeeding I've never forgotten And I had an orange dress There's a photo It is here It has never gone away Because these are some of those instances Where maybe it's been tough Babies getting sick Right? You have to coordinate school You have to coordinate school activities You have to be the loudest parent As they have their sports So that they can know you're there You have to be that mama That is always standing next to the feet You're not sharing your kids up Yeah, yeah, go, go, go That parent who even the children Will be asked like Did your mother come today? That's what we always want to do And we want to be Right? They don't sometimes say Mama, you're making too much noise You're embarrassing me In fact, I remember one time My daughter said Mama, the day you decide to keep quiet It's going to be abnormal It's either you're sick But we're good to go with the mama That you are We are like We have no other choice So you've been the support battalion Absolutely, absolutely We have worked all the milestones together In good times And so even when I see them transitioning I can tell you something Ram This year is so sentimental for me Because In the month of March Of course because of the calendar Of events for schools I had two candidates Here he is in Form 4 Here is a daughter In Class 8 Here I am Lokichar is in Class 8 Lokichar is in Class 8 Now she's joined Form 1 Trasinch transitioned Form 1 They were Wow And here you are At the helm of a very heavy assignment Work And I remember 4 months back Before the exams I was just thinking My God How do we do this? And of course the school fees Are increased Yes The school fees are increased But above all There's something very interesting Ram That Over and above What you give your child physically There's one thing that they want They want to have you as the mother To be present To be there To listen Not to judge But have a conversation So here you are People are about to do exams Everyone has got various The mood is A lot of anxiety I remember I'd go to My daughter's boarding school once a week I'd make sure I do a call To my son's teacher once a week Just to make sure that We are good to go And of course not to forget Praying And I really have a Large support system That have really prayed with us And prayed for us So I think for me By the time now Here they are They've done the exams Okay then you're like Thank you Lord So there's the bit where You have to make sure That even as they finish You have to be there To go and receive them Yes And this is a middist A lot of things And were they coming out of school On the same day? No My daughter left like a month before And then my son After one month Oh yes Yes KCPE finishes Okay yes So there's that bit And you go Yes you're happy Exams are out Then the next thing We've been told In two weeks you have Results And it goes on and on Managing expectations And reminding them consistently That you know what Your grades Your marks Are going to defy And make you a lesser child Now there's something That I really want to know From you as a mother Yes yes Because always We always talk about Candidates being the ones Who fear Yes You know That points them When the results Are being released Yes This fear That is in every candidate Yes How is it going to be The hearts are beating Yes Nobody ever asks About the mother During this time That are being released Because I have seen The time when A mother is Going to hospital Yes And I'm a baby And the doctor Is putting an injection On the child Yes It is a mother That screams Yes And yet The child is getting an injection Is that the same Metafodically speaking In the part of education Let me tell you Ram I was actually Shared with a few friends I told them It's like an exaggerated Form of labor It's like you go back To labor pains again Because here you are You have to look That's mom Who is like Guys I have your back Right Don't worry Irrespective of what you get That's not what will define you Then deep down You're saying Okay God Now give me that strength To know how You're going to manage Various expectations And your heart is beating Yes it is How did it feel The results are now out The results are out And then It starts off with my daughter And I must say It was a journey Also for her And then boom She exceeds expectations She was even shocked On her own behalf She was shocked on her own behalf Yes She was And I was also like Whoa So you know first of all You go into a days Then after a month The big man In fact It was a Saturday Had gone for a function And then he called me And says mom It's live I told him it's okay Be at peace God is in control I'm saying that But deep down I'm like whoa okay God I've just given a form Of affirmation That everything is okay But how do we transition Because you have to be Their strength Yes you have to You cannot start saying Oh my God Oh my God How do I You cannot even afford To be confused They'll freak out They'll freak out And when they hear Your voice It also gives them A form of comfort When they hear The voice also off A father It also gives them A form of comfort Alright Let's move away From that family life Yes Let's get to that other life That you've just mentioned Yes You are at work Yes Let's get to that aspect How is it Being a nurse Yes And the challenges You faced as a woman Yes In the medical industry Okay Medical field Ram I want to say that Elizabeth has Transitioned Has metamorphosized Over the years As she also continues To realize her potential Aha You're learning yourself Yes Each and every day So yes I am a nurse by profession But currently I now am a healthcare Business development specialist Wow Big name Ram I can tell you At no point did I ever think Anything mathematically In my life would be appearing When I remember My grades in primary And secondary I hope my son has not Had that line Aha You're not telling Why are you telling What you're number one Ha ha ha What you're number one No, no, no That one No, you just talk about What was visible then Yes So with that I'm just to appreciate My journey I started off As a nurse I have served In children's home I have served In a district hospital To be specific Kisiolo district hospital So I know what it means To work in also Resource limited settings Wow Right So from there I transitioned And came to Nairobi Right When I came to Nairobi I joined Eastern dinner AIDS relief program As a program Nurse So Eastern dinner Was Or rather Is still in the heart Of Nairobi Islando Huruma Badogo So of course for me Kidogo it was a culture shock Right Because now I had to know how to Kisiolo now Yeah, you had to know Gotan Yajie The shen And now we have a new shen You've heard of it I'm telling you I was just hearing one, two And I was like Do we need another dictionary Or something I don't know So with that The transition was beautiful Because I must say That job also made me A lot who I am today Because it had a lot of Interaction With patients Who were affected With HIV Or even people Who wanted to come And get treatment So you find that That conversation becomes different And difficult Let me tell you Ram The first time that I was shown by The supervisor What to do And now she told me now Get in, now see the patients So here comes a couple Father, mother Two small children And now after The pre-canceling And everything And then you run the test And you realise who All the tests Are what you call reactive Ram As they cried I cried the first day When you say reactive Yes It means now The test turns to positive Meaning now A whole family Is HIV positive Mother, father And now especially the children Because they were very young For below two years Now you're trying to find out Now this part even What happens I now moved out From the healthcare Work and now became a mother And I'm thinking What is all this So they cried And I cried Soon mama Lisa So luckily The supervisor Somewhere came in And took over the session And I cried And turned pink And then later on She told me You have to define The difference Between empathy And sympathy Wow As you go into that room Because you're going back There again He said you go back again I was not given an offer I tell you But those words Were powerful Sympathy Empathy Because if we are going to get Solutions For humanity You must feel But you must also be able to act In a way to assist On the same So it was a learning experience It was a learning experience And you are also transforming yourself And growing Yes And from there Actually I now learned How to do the health talks And do them in what you call Simplified ways Without using jargon From there I was there for five years Then I moved to Nairobi women's hospital Where I now served As a nurse supervisor I worked During the night duty Remember the children Are still young Right And with that They were all before Below five All of them were below five Yeah They were all below five And I went in to night duty And so you can imagine I really thank God Because I also had a very good nani Who was able to also assist To step in Right Very important Very important So support system I must say must be there On the same Yes So I have From Nairobi women's And now at Nairobi women's After like about three years Is when I realized A lot of the work I was doing Was reaching out to the community Through health talks Health care So whenever there'd be a health talk I'd be told Elizabeth Facilitate this If there's a medical camp Facilitate this Then I realized Wait a minute I think Where God has placed me to be Is outside there Not in an office Or in a hospital Is to go out to the community Yes Because those who come inside At least they know there's an option But outside there That's where the work is This fear This misconception And there's so much to be done So that's how I now transition To what you call Client relations officer Of The hospital So with that There was a bit of transition Also going on In terms of rearranging The department And me I thought it was just About talking to patients And this and that Then realized later For whatever you do You must plan You must study The needs of the people Now how was it now Because you're transitioning From one area To a different area Still health care But now you're offering Health care solutions To the community How was it Going out there The fear It's like a whole ministry Let me tell you And it was Difficult one And especially We must agree that Health care is two way There are those who will be Very happy with you They leave a name Babies after you Right Exactly Did people Yes I mean if you go and Deliver a mother And she'll be like Ata kama kijana yungu Niki Ni tamu ita Elizabeth You're like okay Let's just change this But you see There's also the flip side Because of service industry There are also people Who have gone through A lot of things They have lost of loved ones They have maybe Have to go into litigation Cases And now Ram That's where I think God give me the calling Right To go in and see How Because these things Will never stop But how do we mitigate These issues Giving it a human face Giving it a solution Giving the community confidence That they can come back And get the service And give you feedback How was the response My goodness Coming back to you Let me tell you Ram The first one year was tough I think I had ulcers For a very long time The first one year Oh you will Trying to reach out to them It was tough Because you'll go in And you're like Mr. Ram My name is so and so And then they're like Uli fanya Uka sema Muka fanya You know that So you know It's like you go On behalf of the organization And you're like And you know You have to withhold it You have to withhold The brand You have to face There's an image You need to be saying There's an image Yes But let me tell you Ram I'm a believer That when you go in With a purpose This is where God Just comes in And he helps things Work out Because marakwanza You'll have that clashing But later on God just brings About some calmness Some discussion And somehow So now that became Has been The way of my life And from there I now transition Father Just to show you that This docket of healthcare Is a very new one In the healthcare space In Kenya Business development In healthcare Remember This is not where You're going to go And say The approach is totally different Business oriented It is not even business It is relationship oriented Right And that is where now I envision That even I And our peers in the industry Can go into relationship Harness more the relations With the people And get to know their needs For their solutions So with that I transition now To the Mpisha hospital Which was starting off The docket And once again I remember When I got that That job I was like Whoa I think this is too big For me guys Can I really manage this You know And There's something that tells you That I think this line That says That if you want to test A very good sale I take them to the tough seas Right And we as women Also we have to learn To remove fear from the equation Because fear is so loud Encourage is very silent So that was a process And I said You know what Let's try and see how it is So with that It's about Going into a new font Creating a team Remember also They are looking at you Like which direction are we going to So once again You have to give that font Of like I think we are going like this But let's do this together So the aspect Of being able to Work with a team Set a department up together And above all Actualize whatever is planned Right Was quite something But we thank God It was whatever I love your journey Because you've gone through a hole You mentioned it As a metamorphosis Yes it is And I love that it is a process for you And a learning experience As you are living a mark But I'm aware that you are also a member of Saint John's Ambulance National Council Yes I am Of course you play an advisory role there Tell us about that Okay So Saint John's Has been around for so many years And important to note is that In Africa There are only two What you call priors Kenya and South Africa How do you mean we say priors? Priors is like Saint John's offices Let me just try and simplify it And those two Are the most active in Africa So you see where that keeps us As Kenya The whole continent Africa Two Are the most visible Kenya And South Africa That's where we are at So with that We all know that with Saint John's They mostly come in to offer rapid response They offer trainings So with that I actually got this Invite through a good friend The current CEO Harun Gikera Who is also a Raterian And he said you know what Saint John's want to set up And I want you to join the team And I was like why not So about 3-4 years ago A small team We used to meet somewhere in Kajiado And by that time we were trying to see How can we create a framework Because this would have been the first Devolved section Of Saint John down to the county As we pilot And see how it can go down to other areas And so with that After a few meetings then Covid happened But still you could see A lot was happening with Saint John's In terms of response Especially during the Covid-19 So once again We came back again now And now was to set up A national council So once again I moved from there To the national council Where we now are We work mostly on advisory Supporting the teams on the ground So with that We are also setting up frameworks How can we empower them In terms of leadership Remember a volunteer also wears off Do we ever take time to see What their needs are Something very interesting That we actually have also set up And are in the process of launching Is the Saint John's ambulance women chapter Which we had a meeting last week And it's more or less To set up a framework to see How can we support these young ladies Right? Because being a volunteer and a woman Is a totally different thing So with that once we set up that And are able to launch We'll be able to set up a platform where For you young lady with a small child And maybe you want to go and give A service out to the community That you'll not be stranded Maybe we can have something like a day care center Where you can have the baby taken care of As you serve So that's just a few of what we are looking at Right? I love it because you mentioned Covid Yes And there is something that you got During this Covid period Yes During the Covid-19 Yes You are selected by The Geneva Learning Foundation Yes During the Covid-19 pandemic To be there what Select it Count it Count it Yes Tell us a bit more about that Just within a short period of time What is that all about Yes And also you are a nominee At the Tall Bag SNF Alisson Global Award Last year Yes Wow, this is surely the story of the woman Thank you Tell us a bit more about these two issues So one thing that happened During the Covid-19 There was a serious decrease Of immunization Yes For our babies And also for Even the mothers coming to the clinic And it's because there was fear Of getting to the health facilities Because of now the big pandemic Everyone knew You can only go to hospital If it's really really necessary Okay So with that That having been picked up In a global aspect So a framework was set up As healthcare workers What can we do To encourage Okay So that they can be able to come up With innovative ways Of being able to reach out To mothers To bring their children To the facilities For immunizations I can tell you babies were being born And they were staying for almost nine months without a vaccine Fear And that's so And you were the forefront And therefore you got recognized For championing for these women And of course within For them to get these healthcare Consultations So with that What happened Each and every country Was setting up a group of members Yes So they were about 97 countries And would actually meet virtually Every week Ram And it was in such a way That where we would have Like for my cluster I had my colleagues from all over Garisa, Moyale Name it All over Kenya Where we would even be able to Advise each other like What is happening This area I don't even have anything This area Maybe the human resource is scared Patinent issues That were really raised at that time So those discussions that we were handling In that At that font We were able now to put them together Every week And get now the global perspective You'll be shocked Ram I'm telling you Kenya Kenya we are doing amazing things So now when they decided Now that we need to have a lead For each country Then I saw my name You saw your name You're like my goodness How did this But yeah But the rest is history The rest is history Yes Because of the interest of time I want us to wrap it up Yes And we are talking about The strength of Auman Your strength And it's coming out so clearly Thank you I would like you to speak to Auman Watching it today Yes As of course you give your parting shot What would be Your parting shot As we bring this to a close Just within 30 seconds Talk to somebody That's your camera My dear sister Out there Do not peg your life on the past Let's look at head Let us be able to create Support systems That will work with us And if you fall down once Twice thrice Arise Arise because the strength Is inside you When you believe in yourself And above all Have reverence to God Great things are bound to happen Wow So women All women up there Out there Make sure we are holding The backs of each and every woman Young or old And we shall make this world A better place Wow Thank you Thank you so much Elizabeth Thank you It's a pleasure I love how you always bring out The fear of God Thank you And I always believe that A woman who fears God Wherever she goes Thank you so much for coming Thank you I wish you the best Keep doing what you're doing Yes, thank you And of course looking forward To us having more of these conversations Absolutely Bring an inspiration to the community And I hope those who In the community are watching today Yes, yes Share the links definitely Thank you so much for coming And of course that's Elizabeth Womoya She is a healthcare business development specialist Joining us on strength Of a woman That business to the end Of this conversation But we still have more coming up Your way in a bit We're taking a short break My name is Ram Aguko It has been a pleasure This is one in the morning