FIGS Operating Theatre

Need & Opportunity

Ukwala area and the greater Siaya County have long faced a severe shortage of accessible surgical services. Prior to this project, patients in need of surgery were frequently referred to hospitals more than 80–120 km away, resulting in delayed treatment, preventable complications, and high transport costs for families already struggling financially. Emergency cases, especially for mothers, trauma victims, and children, were often life-threatening due to long transfer times.

Matibabu Foundation Hospital is deeply rooted in the community and has a mission to deliver high quality healthcare to underserved populations. With a rapidly growing inpatient service but no operating theatre of its own, the hospital saw a critical opportunity to expand its services and drastically improve health outcomes for thousands of people in Ukwala and surrounding counties

Solution & Value Add

Matibabu Foundation partnered with Construction for Change as the owner’s representative to make the vision of a world-class surgical centre a reality. CfC guided the project from concept through construction, managing design refinement, contractor coordination, cost and risk controls, quality assurance, and closeout.

The result was the FIGS Operating Theatre, a state-of-the-art surgical facility equipped with three theatres, recovery rooms, sterilization areas, ICU beds, and optimized clinical circulation to support patient safety and infection control. The facility was designed with the future in mind, including provisions for medical gases, mechanical ventilation, and accommodating evolving surgical needs.

Our project manager, Judy, lived within the community throughout the build, ensuring close supervision and empowering local workers, more than 80% of whom were recruited from Ukwala and the surrounding villages.
Since its handover in January 2024, the theatre has already hosted multiple surgical camps, providing life-changing operations to patients who would otherwise have gone untreated. The facility is now a regional hub for specialized procedures, medical outreach, and surgical training.