Notes from Nairobi: BAND at the Segal Family Foundation Meeting
In July, the BAND Foundation spent two weeks in Kenya visiting partners, seeing their work firsthand, and connecting with organizations and funders advancing epilepsy care and conservation across the region.
Expanding Epilepsy Care in Kajiado
Our first stop was Kajiado County, where we joined our grantee partner Kenya Association for the Welfare of People with Epilepsy (KAWE) for the opening of a new epilepsy clinic at the AIC Kajiado Child Care Centre.
The clinic will serve children with disabilities, many of whom are living with epilepsy, and is designed with long-term sustainability in mind. KAWE is training and mentoring local health workers so that epilepsy services can continue to grow within the community and under local leadership.
KAWE has worked for decades to improve epilepsy awareness, treatment, and support for people living with the condition in Kenya. Seeing this work firsthand reinforced the importance of investing in organizations that combine deep community relationships with the expertise needed to make care more accessible.
We are grateful to Patrick Ngechu, Dr. Miyanji, and the entire KAWE team for welcoming us and for their continued leadership.
Conservation in Action with Tsavo Trust
From Kajiado, we traveled to the Tsavo Conservation Area to spend time with another BAND grantee, Tsavo Trust, a Kenyan conservation organization working to protect one of the country’s most important wildlife landscapes.
Tsavo Trust takes a field-based approach to conservation, working alongside the Kenya Wildlife Service to protect biodiversity, monitor wildlife, strengthen security, and support communities across the broader Tsavo ecosystem. The organization is particularly well known for its work protecting and monitoring Tsavo’s elephant population.
Our visit offered an opportunity to see what long-term conservation looks like on the ground—and the importance of supporting organizations with the local knowledge, relationships, and infrastructure needed to protect these landscapes over time.
Segal Family Foundation Meeting
Our two weeks in Kenya concluded at the Segal Family Foundation Annual Meeting in Nairobi, which brought together more than 700 African leaders, practitioners, and donors working across a wide range of social issues.
BAND hosted a session titled “Accessing Care in the Shadows,” focused on the barriers that continue to prevent people living with epilepsy from accessing appropriate care.
The session included a screening of The Curse of Stigma, a film exploring the human impact of stigma and silence surrounding epilepsy. Patrick Ngechu of KAWE joined us to share the organization’s experience raising awareness, educating communities, and supporting people living with epilepsy in Kenya.
Several participants also shared their own experiences living with epilepsy or caring for someone with the condition. Their stories underscored why creating space for open conversation—and bringing epilepsy out of the shadows—remains so important.
Closing the epilepsy treatment gap will require more funders to recognize epilepsy as both a major public health challenge and a solvable one. We hope to see greater philanthropic attention, collaboration, and long-term investment in the years ahead.
We left Kenya encouraged by what our partners are building and even more convinced that meaningful progress is possible when local leadership is matched with sustained resources.
Are you a funder who is interested in helping advance this work? Consider joining BAND’s Funders Learning Network for Global Epilepsy here.