Meet Melavin Muthamaki: One of HopeCore's Heroes
For our annual gala coming up at the end of October, we are highlighting several of HopeCore Heroes! These are members of our team or beneficiaries of our program, who have done outstanding work for the organization.
Today, Meet Melavin Muthamaki!
Hard-working, efficient, productive, committed, and diligent are characteristics of our Impact and Communication coordinator Melavin Muthamaki.
Melavin joined HopeCore in 2015. He was quite impressed by the organization's impact on the community, so he was happy to come back when he got a chance to work after completing his studies in 2016 and joined as a community health worker. Melavin later became a health educator, and due to his excellent work and commitment, he became the monitoring and evaluation officer.
Melavin Muthamaki
During his time at HopeCore, Melavin has been innovative and shares out-of-the-box ideas that have been a great help to the organization. For instance, while working as a health educator, he helped develop a data collection application used in mosquito net monitoring. When the organization got a data collection tool for all the programs, Melavin got trained, and he manages the application up to date. He was able to digitalize most of the paperwork in the organization, saving on the workforce and making work easier for most of the staff.
Melavin with Dr. KK
Melavin receiving a certificate from Dr. KK (HopeCore CEO and Founder), which was from leadership and management training
Melavin took the initiative of taking wonderful photos of the organization's activities used on social media, websites, and reports. These photos helped show the impact HopeCore was making in the community and increased the organization's visibility.
Below are some photos that Melavin has taken of Chogoria, Kenya, and of our staff.
What he likes most about working at HopeCore is that views and ideas from the staff are considered during the implementation of programs.
Melavin is knowledgeable, resourceful, a great researcher full of ideas, and does not shy away from sharing his thoughts and ideas. He takes ownership of assigned tasks and can figure out how to get things done.
Melavin joined nine other cyclists around Mt. Kenya on December 1st, 2020.
Last year together with the Meru Cycling Club, Melavin cycled 313km around Mt. Kenya to fundraise for our Maternal Child Health clinic, and they were able to raise 1000 dollars. The journey was quite challenging considering the mountainous terrain of the route, but Melavin being a go-getter and person who does not settle for less, completed the task in just two days. Melavin always stands behind the team in good and hard times, and we could not ask for a better team member.
We are lucky to have a creative innovator like Melavin!
“In the future, Village HopeCore will be a leader in Health Education in Kenya. Health Education can save millions of lives. I look forward to being part of the HopeCore team that saves lives”
Melavin shares his own story of working at HopeCore below.
Thank you Melavin!!
MELAVIN MUTHAMAKI ON WORKING AT VILLAGE HOPECORE
My name is Melavin Muthamaki and I am the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer. Today I share my experience of working at Village HopeCore from 2016 to date.
Highlights
2016
I joined Village HopeCore in August 2016 as a Community Health Worker. I had just completed school and was very excited to be starting my first job. I used to weigh children, measure their height/length and head circumference, and counsel the mother accordingly using the observations. Village HopeCore is among the few institutions in Kenya that measure the head circumference of a child during growth monitoring. The purpose is to refer the children to pediatric specialists for early interventions for example if the child has any disorders such as microcephaly.
2017
In 2017, joined the School to Community project as the Project Co-Ordinator. Our aim was to train school children to be junior community health workers in their communities and positive agents of change in their families. We would train students in health clubs on the benefits of drinking clean water and practicing good hand hygiene and encourage them to train their fellow students, families, and the community on the same. It was a really good time interacting regularly with all the students from the 40 health clubs we had at that time.
In 2017, Naomi Nyanchama joined as the Director of Operations. She has been a very positive influence and I have learned a lot from her.
2018
In 2018, I became a Health Educator and began visiting schools to offer health education during our mobile clinics. The teams visiting the field each day had grown from one when I joined HopeCore in 2016 to four. This meant that each day we would visit four schools and I would be educating the students in one of the schools.
In 2018, we had begun using an Android application as opposed to paper forms to collect our data in the field. It was more efficient and quicker. It was something I always admired and for three months that year, Anne Gildea trained me on how to develop applications for our application which is called CommCare.
In October 2018, I transitioned from a Health Educator to take up the new Monitoring and Evaluation Officer post.
HopeCore facilitated this by taking me to a two-week training at Amref University in Nairobi where I got a certificate in Monitoring and Evaluation. This gave me the necessary skills to take on the new challenge.
2019
In 2019, I trained our 206 CHVs on our CommCare applications. It was an amazing experience because most of them had not used a smartphone before.
In 2019 January, Ariane donated a DSLR Camera to Village HopeCore to improve our photos. It was my first time using a DSLR Camera. I loved the experience so much that it became my new hobby and led to me getting my first camera.
2020
In 2020 I look forward to working with my colleagues to improve and deliver the best services for the people of Mwimbi and Muthambi.
What I have loved at HopeCore!
The love from community members who appreciate the good work HopeCore has done.
The many opportunities to improve my skill set. When I joined, I was not a photographer or a party planner but those are some of the skills I have learned at HopeCore.
The diversity, we have many staff members from different walks of life and sometimes even continents, so it always broadens a person's perspective.
The good leaders, including our founder and president Dr Kajira Mugambi, who continues to mentor and inspire me each day.
Women leaders, including but not limited to Naomi Nyanchama our operations manager, Anne Gildea our board member, Jillo Gubal our Micro-Enterprise Co-Ordinator, Ariane Rasori the Director of Nursing Program Development, Faith Kainyu our Community Health Coordinator, and Irene Mokua our Clinic Co-Ordinator. I have learned a lot from these great leaders. They have reshaped my outlook on life and if one day I have a daughter then I will raise her better.
Living in Chogoria
Chogoria is one of the most beautiful places in Kenya. Mount Kenya forest is only 5km away. I normally visit the forest on weekends to unwind. It would be perfect were it not for the huge disparity in income between the rich and the poor. It’s the major reason at Village HopeCore we strive to bridge this gap by empowering the poor through health education, business education, and even micro-enterprise loans.
Moving Forward
In the future, Village HopeCore will be a leader in health education in Kenya. Health education can save millions of lives. Up to 1.5 million people die from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related diseases each year. I look forward to being a part of the HopeCore team that saves lives.
~ by Melavin Muthamaki
