For the first time since 2003 KOFUP trustees did not make their annual trip to Kenya in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Despite this they have kept in regular contact with the projects through email, phone conversations and Zoom and been able to offer them support in these very challenging times.
Initial cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Kenya on March 13th 2020 and in Uganda on March 22nd. Around the same time heavy and prolonged rains led to the highest level of water ever recorded in Lake Victoria leading to serious flooding in western Kenya where the majority of KOFUP’s projects are situated.
Once the pandemic hit, schools were quickly closed leaving hundreds of thousands of children and young people confined at home with many exposed to violence, poor nutrition and teenage pregnancy.
JOHN WILSON FOUNDATION: In April 2020 KOFUP sent funds to the John Wilson Foundation (JOWI), an indigenous community-based organization providing care and support to orphans and vulnerable children with a strong focus on education as a means to fighting poverty and improving life chances. KOFUP funds were used to respond to the immediate needs of eighty families (including 618 children) impacted negatively by both Covid and flooding. JOWI used a three-pronged approach:
*A ‘shopping basket’ of twelve assorted food and basic items, including maize meal, beans, rice, cooking oil, soap and face masks, was provided to each family with adequate quantities to last around two months.
*A social cash transfer for the daily purchase of perishable food items not provided in the shopping basket, such as vegetables, tomatoes and bread, was made via Mpesa (mobile money transfer).
*The establishment of kitchen gardens: this intervention was meant to help wean people off the social cash transfer and ensure sustained food security in the longer term. Householders were given training in farming technology to increase the chances of success and then supplied with seedlings including indigenous vegetables, spinach, tomatoes, onions and cassava. Importantly the intervention was meant to ensure less exposure to the coronavirus through reduced frequency of visits to markets and shopping centres.
PANDIPIERI HEALTHCARE PROGRAMME: Also in April 2020, funds were sent to the Pandipieri Healthcare Programme which provides outreach services to people living in the slums around Kisumu, the main town in western Kenya. Families in need were identified by staff; people were found to be going without food for many days and malnutrition was noted particularly in the under-fives. KOFUP funds supported 189 families (a total of 756 parents, children and youth). Food was provided which helped to reduce the number of children running to the streets because of hunger. The importance of hand hygiene in helping combat the spread of Covid-19 was highlighted and soap and Leaky taps (containers that can be filled with water and attached to a tree) were given to each family which has since led to a routine of hand-washing. Face masks were provided which meant people could move freely, the habit of sharing masks stopped and there was improved family dignity amongst community members. KOFUP funds were also used to buy solar-powered radios for children to follow the broadcast of school lessons at home.
In the Nyalenda slum the heavy rains caused the collapse of a wall in the house where a family with two little girls, Ruth and Victoria, were sleeping; the little girls were said to be traumatised by the event. The Pandipieri team leapt into action. KOFUP funds enabled them to move the family back to their rural home and build them a new house. There was much singing and dancing at the return of the family to their rural homestead. Subsequent monitoring visits indicate the family have settled well with good community support.
KOFUP funds were also used to support the Pandipieri Nutrition Project: 134 severely malnourished children were given locally made improved porridge flour during April, May and June. Undernourished women who gave birth and had insufficient breast milk were given milk for their babies who are now reported to be thriving.
JOHN XXIII STREET KIDS OUTREACH: This Italian lay community provides outreach to street kids in the slums on the outskirts of Nairobi. Every week they go out to the streets to connect with the kids living there. The pandemic brought significant concerns about safety. Forty of the youngsters had used their initiative to rent accommodation to get themselves off the streets but they were only able to afford two rooms. KOFUP funds have been used to rent more rooms so that the youngsters have greater space to socially distance as much as possible; they have also been provided with food and face masks. Simone Ceciliani, who heads up the outreach, recently wrote: ‘We have noticed some good changes in the boys. In fact yesterday they had no complaints about fights among them and they were particularly calm and peaceful. They are asking things that before they’d never ask, like soap. It seems that they are taking more care of themselves maybe for the simple fact that they now have a stable place where to live and sleep. They are very grateful!!! We hope that this is the beginning of a real change. I am also thinking that the step we have taken renting the rooms is something really good and probably we will not go back even when the pandemic ends. Through the evil of Covid-19 something good has happened in the life of these boys.’