Apollo Karuga

‘A self-driven, highly resourceful and result oriented Registered Nutritionist and Food Systems Manager committed to efficiently exceed targets while ensuring an organization’s success.’ 

Work Experience

September 2022 – Present| Conference of Youth 17, Country Contact Point Kenya.

• Worked with the Global Affairs Unit to assist youth from their country to attend the Conference of Youth (COY17) actively in Egypt and have their own individual, as well as organizational voices, heard in and through the global youth statement collaboratively with the Global Affairs Unit based on their passion and expertise.

June 2022 – Present| Local Conference of Youth-Kenya 2022, President/ Partnership& Strategy Manager                                                             

• Led a team of 20 skilled and resourceful individuals in organizing the LCOY Kenya 2022 3days hybrid event with a 30,000 USD budget. Main themes of the LCOY were Food systems, Transportation and Energy.
• Conceptualized LCOY in Kenya 2022 and secured partners for the LCOY including Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO), Commonwealth and Development Office, Embassy of Denmark in Kenya, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), World Wide Fund (WWF Kenya), Hivos Kenya, and Growpoint International.
• Created a team and assigned roles such as communications and social media, programmes, county outreaches and rapporteurs from conceptualization, planning and implementation phase.
• Managed to secure a partnership deal for the LCOY with Society for International Development (SID), which acted as our trusted financial hosts, in charge of drafting financial Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with different companies the LCOY was to partner with.
• Created a well detailed concept note with all the details about the LCOY such as theme & duration of the event, financial plan and potential partners.
• Liaised with the financial analysts of the team to come up with a 30,000USD budget for the LCOY, bearing in mind all the sectors which the event needed funding such as conferencing & logistics, climate live, speakers, exhibitions, marketing and brand.
• Led a working group of 4 people (county outreaches team) within the LCOY on creation of a pre-survey form needed for the collection of data from audiences before the 3 days event started.

 Feb 2021 – Present| Growpoint International-Kenya, Country Director                                                                                            

• Represented Kenya at the international team of 7 members across African countries, Scotland and USA.
• Prepared 2 proposals for presentation at the Falling Walls Initiative at Strathmore University in Kenya.
• Volunteered with the Outreach programme NGO and travelled to Tanzania for a field study. I later created 1detailed report.
• Represented the Outreach programme at the Strathmore University, during Falling Walls pitch hackathon and emerged top 5.

 Feb 2021 – Nov 2021| Ministry of Health– Mbagathi District Hospital, Clinical Nutritionist Intern                        

• Sharpened my leadership skills as the team leader for the 10 interns and over 50 attachees posted at Mbagathi District Hospital.
• Prepared 5 rotas to be used by the interns and attachees at Mbagathi District Hospital for a period of 1year.
• Assessed the nutrition status of over 50 patients per day by taking anthropometrics and later provided necessary nutrition counselling to them.
• Organized and attended over 40 Continuous Medical Education (CMEs) intended for healthcare workers at the hospital.
• Organized and attended 3 clinical screening events such as cancer screening week and World Breastfeeding Week.
• Analyzed my daily routine and reported what I had done to the nutrition officer.
• Worked in all the departments of the hospital, both inpatient and outpatient. This includes Newborn Unit and Pediatric wards.
• Compiled all the 7 weekly reports and created a final report which I presented to the Kenya Nutritionist and Dietetics Institute at the end of the year.
• Screened the nutrition status of over 1500 infants and children below 5 years within one month, recorded their weight and height and enrolled them in a monitoring and evaluation routine.
• Screened the nutrition status of over 500 infants below 6 months by using the weighing scale and the height board.
• Analyzed and interpreted the nutrition status of the 500+ infants using the weight and height Z score.
• Provided nutrition education to over 500 mothers of malnourished children, PMTCT and patients living with lifestyle conditions such as diabetes, and hypertension in a month.
• Provided food by prescription and supplemental feed such as Ready to Use Supplementary Feeds (RUSF) and Ready to Use Therapeutic Feeds (RUTF) to over 400 patients under 5 years diagnosed with malnutrition such as underweight, kwashiorkor or marasmus. 
• Learnt health informatics and health systems skills and programs of the hospital after one year of being  the cohort leader of the nutritionists at Mbagathi Hospital
• Prepared the Therapeutic Feeds such as F100, F75 and Ensure for enteral nutrition of over 100 Severely Underweight (SAM) and Moderately Underweight (MAM) patients admitted in the wards.

June 2019 – Aug 2019| Ministry of Health– Mbagathi District Hospital, Clinical Nutritionist Attachee

• Screened the nutrition status of over 1500 infants and children below 5 years within one month, recorded their weight and height and enrolled them in a monitoring and evaluation routine.
• Screened the nutrition status of over 500 infants below 6 months by using the weighing scale and the height board.
• Analyzed and interpreted the nutrition status of the 500+ infants using the weight and height Z score.
• Provided nutrition education to over 500 mothers of malnourished children, PMTCT and patients living with lifestyle conditions such as diabetes, and hypertension in a month.
• Provided food by prescription and supplemental feed such as Ready to Use Supplementary Feeds (RUSF) and Ready to Use Therapeutic Feeds (RUTF) to over 400 patients under 5 years diagnosed with malnutrition such as underweight, kwashiorkor or marasmus. 
• Learnt health informatics and health systems skills and programs of the hospital after one year of being  the cohort leader of the nutritionists at Mbagathi Hospital
• Prepared the Therapeutic Feeds such as F100, F75 and Ensure for enteral nutrition of over 100 Severely Underweight (SAM) and Moderately Underweight (MAM) patients admitted in the wards.

Jan 2019-Dec |AIESEC (International Association of Students in Commercial and Social Sciences), Legalities and Audits Manager

• Worked with a team of 6 highly skilled individuals in event management and planning to organize the Local Chapter University of Nairobi Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). 
• Ran a total of 10 audits on the organization’s projects at 3 different locations at Thika, Kawangware and Mathare within the first quarter of the working year.
• Received a total of 5 interns from abroad and placed them to their working stations such as the Mama Africa Social Care for children.
• Completed 5 well detailed reports on the projects done by the University of Nairobi AIESEC Local Chapter and presented the results to the President, Vice presidents and members of AIESEC.

June 2018 – Aug 2018| Ministry of Health–Kihara SubCounty Hospital, Clinical Nutritionist Attachee

• Provided nutrition education to over 500 mothers of malnourished children, PMTCT and patients living with lifestyle conditions such as diabetes, and hypertension in a month.
• Provided food by prescription and supplemental feed such as Ready to Use Supplementary Feeds (RUSF) and Ready to Use Therapeutic Feeds (RUTF) to over 400 patients under 5 years diagnosed with malnutrition such as underweight, kwashiorkor or marasmus. 
• Learnt health informatics and health systems skills and programs of the hospital after one year of being  the cohort leader of the nutritionists at Mbagathi Hospital
• Prepared the Therapeutic Feeds such as F100, F75 and Ensure for enteral nutrition of over 100 Severely Underweight (SAM) and Moderately Underweight (MAM) patients admitted in the wards.                     

Education

Sept 2016 – 2020| University of Nairobi, Bachelor of Food Science Nutrition and Dietetics                                                                                                                                                                                                              May2018 - July 2018| Jijali life skills training Program, Yusudi Limited Kenya