Our Course & Mission

This academic and experiential program will center on women’s reproductive health and justice in Kenya. Via collaboration with Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Hollins University students will gain a global health perspective with a focus on issues that include maternal and child health, birthing experiences, and gendered economic disparities. Students will also be introduced to Kenyan culture via immersive experiences with local non-governmental organizations, Kenyatta students, and the public. The partnership with Kenyatta University and visits with local advocacy groups and clinics will give students the opportunity for cultural exchange and critical comparative health studies through exploration of public knowledge about and advocacy for women’s health.

Course objectives include:

• learning about public and private healthcare systems in Kenya;

• developing a global perspective on reproductive health and access to care;

• gaining first-hand knowledge on various determinants of maternal and child health outcomes;

• understanding how traditional medicine and industrialized medicine entwine or become separated across communities;

• connecting with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), healthcare workers and advocates, and community members in and around Nairobi; and

• being immersed in various aspects of Kenyan life and culture to better understand the co-constitution of medical science and society.

Our students are the primary keepers of knowledge during our study abroad and are ambassadors for Hollins University and the United States during our time in Kenya. As they learn and explore, they will keep journals and contribute to OUR TRAVELOG, will generate a summative reflective essay, and will share their experiences with the Hollins community in formal and informal settings, such as the annual Student Performance and Academic Research (SPARC) and Leading Equity, Diversity, and Justice Conferences. Our students will also share their ideas, writings, and photos for publication in Kenyatta University’s summer Tribune to highlight our partnership. 

We are excited to offer this opportunity to our students not just as a means of assessing their analytical thinking, but also as training for future public-facing scholarship, public speaking, health policy research and development, and non-profit project design and management.

To learn more about Hollins' commitment to career training, see the university's Career & Life Design page.

Beginning in 2026, we are piloting a safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) project with the teachers and children at the Kenyatta day school. When we last visited, the COVID-19 pandemic had revealed that handwashing in Kenya outside of mealtime is uncommon. This is due to limited access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene education and protocols. The issue has already been pinpointed by the Kenyan government and the Kenyatta faculty with whom we work as a critical intervention needed given the rapid spread of infectious diseases and state of toilet/latrine infrastructure.

Thanks to a Hobbie Trust Fund grant, we are tackling the personal hygiene aspect of WASH through a service learning project that will focus specifically on handwashing. We will provide soap, buckets, sanitary wipes, and/or hand sanitizer for the kids at the day school, which they can take home to their families, and we will teach them about handwashing best practices, just as we do with primary school children in Virginia. 

While a seemingly small project, communicating information and sharing handwashing supplies has a big impact on the lives of those we will meet. Indeed, WASH knowledge and infrastructure are key to self-respect, confidence, fairness, and community care. For data on the import of WASH, see the World Health Organization's Sanitation Fact Sheet.

By focusing on WASH, Hollins undergraduates will directly advocate for the well-being of Kenyan citizens and shape public knowledge about human health. In doing so, we will fulfill Hollins University's mission to prepare students for lives of purpose and Kenyatta University's vision of education as a means to personal and social development. 

Moreover, our service learning project engages the following set of values the Gender & Women's Studies and Public Heath departments consider key to understanding community health needs and improving personal well-being in cultural context: 

1. We affirm that education is a tool of community empowerment and essential for the expression of individual autonomy;

2. We believe that generosity of spirit, compassion, and kindness are starting points for cultural exchange and our development as global citizens;

3. We view philanthropy as a catalyst for positive change when care is taken to be responsive to and respectful toward local spritual, social, and cultural practices; and

4. We prize honesty and accuracy as we commit to gaining, sharing, and producing knowledge with others across a range of backgrounds.

By foregrounding this ethical stance, we remain faithful to international and cross-cultural collaboration, communication, and sustainable partnership now and into the future.

Elimu ni Nguvu!