Giving back: Faith Kipyegon’s Maternity project set to transform health care in Keringet

For generations, pregnancy in Keringet and its surrounding villages has carried risks far beyond the delivery room. Expectant mothers have been forced to walk for hours or rely on unreliable transport to reach the nearest health facility, often navigating poor roads and long distances while in labour. 

For many families in Kuresoi South, the journey to safe maternity care has been uncertain, exhausting, and sometimes tragic.

That reality is now set to change.

Hope arrived in the village following the groundbreaking of a maternity hospital funded through a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative by Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon. The six-month project, launched on Sunday, promises to bring lifesaving maternal and neonatal services closer to women who have long been underserved.

Once completed, the Dare to Dream maternity ward will serve not only Keringet but also neighbouring communities across at least five counties. The facility is expected to ease pressure on overstretched dispensaries and eliminate the dangerous journeys that pregnant women have endured in search of specialised care.

Speaking during the launch, Kipyegon says the project was deeply personal. Raised in Keringet, she recalled a childhood shaped by community support, discipline and resilience, values that carried her from barefoot school races to global athletics stardom.

"Women in the area currently walk more than ten kilometres to access maternity services, a situation that exposes mothers and newborns to preventable risks. Success is not just about medals. It is about touching lives. No woman should risk her life-giving birth because a hospital is too far away," Kipyegon states.

The project has received support from Nike, a partnership Kipyegon said allowed her to turn a historic athletic milestone, breaking the four-minute mile barrier, into a lasting legacy for her community.

Beyond symbolism, the maternity wing will offer skilled birth attendants, emergency obstetric care, and neonatal services, interventions proven to significantly reduce maternal and newborn deaths, especially in rural settings.

World marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge, who attended the ceremony, praised the initiative as an example of how athletes can drive social change. Athletics Kenya President retired General Jackson Tuwei echoed the sentiment, saying Kenyan athletes continue to show leadership beyond the track through meaningful community investments.

For local women, the project brings long-awaited relief.

 Maurine Cherono, a Keringet resident, says the maternity hospital restores hope in a community where childbirth has too often been a frightening experience.

“We have seen women give birth on the road because the hospital was too far. Knowing help will be nearby changes everything for us.” she notes

Cherono futhers says, as construction begins, the maternity hospital stands not just as a building, but as a promise of safer births, stronger families, and a future where motherhood in Keringet no longer comes with fear.

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