“I grew up watching mothers walk for miles, hoping to find care for their children. We started Nomad Health Initiative to bring quality healthcare to our nomadic families — where they are, as they are.”
Asha Adan, Founder, Maternal & Child Health Lead
We make healthcare Move - Just like the communities we serve.
We work in Northern Kenya to improve health outcomes for nomadic infants and women. We professionalize, equip and deploy frontline health workers. Technology is at the centre of this.
Mission
To build climate-resilient, tech-enabled healthcare systems that deliver timely, dignified, and culturally relevant care to last-mile pastoral communities in Northern Kenya.
Vision
Climate Resilient Healthcare, Everywhere.
Key Impact To Date
%
Of infants (0–23 months) in target communities complete their full immunization schedules.
%
Of pregnant and postpartum mothers in mobile clinic zones access at least one antenatal or postnatal care visit.
%
Of pastoral mothers demonstrate improved health practices and attitudes on child and maternal health.
Frontline community health workers equipped and professionalized and actively serving.
Community members reached with culturally relevant health education in the local Borana language through local radio, pictorials and frontline health workers.
OUR STORY
Nomad Health Initiative was founded in 2022 by three young medical graduates who grew up within nomadic communities in Northern Kenya. While interning at Marsabit County Referral Hospital, they witnessed a harsh reality—pastoralist children and mothers were being left behind in healthcare access. The challenges were complex: climate change, constant mobility, prolonged drought, under-resourced health systems, and insecurity were compounding the problem.
Our Core Values
Equity – We believe everyone, regardless of geography or background, deserves access to quality healthcare.
Community-Driven – We listen to and work alongside the communities we serve, respecting indigenous knowledge and pastoralist ways of life.
Innovation – We leverage technology and data to design adaptive, sustainable solutions for remote healthcare delivery.
Innovation – We leverage technology and data to design adaptive, sustainable solutions for remote healthcare delivery.
Integrity – We are accountable to the people we serve, our partners, and each other.
OUR WORK
We Make healthcare move — just like the communities we serve.
Across Northern Kenya’s remote, drought-stricken landscapes, access to basic healthcare remains a daily struggle for pastoral families. We exist to close that gap by designing and delivering climate-resilient, tech-enabled, and culturally grounded health solutions for last-mile nomadic communities. We currently run 2 main programs:
Tallaala Deem (Healthcare Across the Sand)
This is Nomad Health Initiative’s flagship program built on the premise that healthcare should be within reach for everyone, anywhere. Tallaala Deem targets nomadic infants and mothers furthest left behind — those most vulnerable to preventable illnesses, death, and long-term disability due to vaccine inequity and limited access to health facilities.
Mental Health
Mental health is health. Yet for many in nomadic communities, emotional and psychological wellbeing remains unspoken, misunderstood, or stigmatized. The Resilient Minds program creates culturally-rooted, community-led spaces for healing and mental wellbeing.
Everything we do is about equity, dignity, and resilience. We blend local knowledge with smart technology, we’re strengthening health systems that reach the last mile.
Our Community
Nomad Health Initiative exists to solve the deep inequities in healthcare access for last mile nomadic communities in Northern Kenya. Target pastoralist populations face chronic exclusion due to mobility, insecurity, climate shocks, and weak, often unresponsive health systems—resulting in low immunization rates, poor maternal and child health outcomes, and limited access to critical primary healthcare services.
The Team
Asha
Founder, Maternal & Child Health Lead
Mariam
Founder and Operations
Hassan Oyugi
Founder and Digital Health Innovation Lead
Halima
Clinical Services Coordinator
Ismail
Community Health Lead
Hussein
Community Engagement & Logistics Officer
Sasura
Government Health Relations
Intern 1
Intern 2
Digital
Anastacia Puccetti
Social Media Intern
Maria Nabuule
Social Media Assistant
PARTNERS
GET INVOLVED
We work in Northern Kenya to professionalize frontline health work, deliver the much- needed quality healthcare, improve children and women’s health, and more. But we need your support. Talk to us today