Founded in 2008, the Anidan Pediatric Hospital Pablo Horstmann provides quality and free health cover to the child population of the disctrict of Lamu, around 55,000 children in total. Since 2010 it has been the main pediatric centre for the zone with patients visiting from very remote areas.

The Foundation Pablo Hortsmann is responsible for its medical management and financing, while our local partner, Anidan K, is responsible for the administration and supervision on the ground.

Lamu is an archipelago off the north coast of Kenya, which has a health service problem made worse by its rural location and lack of health care provision. It also suffers from its high rate of tropical diseases and the access problems to the health centers from the islands furthest away.

Since 2008 this medical centre has offered pediatric assistance to more than 105,000 patients, with more than 4,200 children requiring admission.

We understand, that for each child that comes to the centre, we could be the only choice available to them for adequate treatment, and perhaps their only hope for a better quality of life. Consequently we try to see every child, putting all our rescources and professionalism at their service.

When we first arrived at Lamu island, only 30% of its inhabitants had access to medecine. Its children needed medical care demonstrated by its infant mortality rate at that time of 11%. Since then, the services and preventions that we have developped, as well as the health education given by our health team, has had an important effect on the child population of Lamu. Diseases and child mortality have reduced significantly.

The Hospital has an emergency triage ward, a priest’s room, two pediatric consultants, two admissions wards, pharmacy, laboratory, a radiography and ecographic unit. The vaccination units: HIV, Renutrition and TB, provide imunization and a structured follow-up of all children who are malnourished or who have HIV/TB.

Annual subspeciality campaigns 

The lack of local health workers capable of responding to the surgical needs of the Lamu community prompted the Pablo Horstmann Foundation and the NGO Anidan to organize surgical campaigns in the operating rooms of the Lamu County Hospital in collaboration with the Kenyan health authorities. The aim being to offer surgical and gynecological assistance to the most vulnerable population in north-eastern Kenya, both children and adults.  

Over the last few years several campaigns of general surgery, gynecological surgery, pediatric surgery, reconstructive surgery and ophthalmology have been successfully performed.  

In addition, these campaigns represent an important training opportunity for Lamu health workers.

The formation of the local health team - a priority  

The formation of the local health team is one of our priorities, and it is Spanish medical specialists who contribute on a continuous basis to their training, helping us to achieve our dream of raising the quality of care each year.

Using every resource to save lives

Life is the most important thing, and we do everything in our power to save as many lives as possible. As a consequence, very serious cases that require diagnostic tests or complex treatments are referred to other hospitals in Kenya. Our health team organizes the referrals and takes on the relevant expenses. In some cases, it is even necessary to refer children to Spain to save lives.

Visits to isolated villages where no one else gets to 

In order to reach the most needy, children of vulnerable populations in the different islands, our team carries out health visits in which, apart from pediatric reviews, it provides malaria prevention campaigns, vaccinations, deworming and educational campaigns to prevent child blindness. These visits also provide nutritional support for the malnourished and health education talks.