Kenya, East Africa Emergency Food Distribution

Hello Everyone,

Ever since the arrival of Covid-19 in 2020, we have been tremendously blessed to have our headteacher's husband, Ephantus Wachira volunteer his Saturdays and his vehicle to coordinate our free food distribution program to the most vulnerable within our community of Nakuru, Kenya.

Here is one of Ephantus's recent weekly reports.

FOOD HAMPERS DISTRIBUTION REPORT –

NGALA ESTATE & FORMER BUS TERMINAL VULNERABLE GROUPS.

Among urban inhabitants in Kenya, the COVID-19 crisis has a disproportionately damaging effect on slum dwellers compared to other urban residents. At the same precautionary measures put in place to curb Covid19 continue to have negative economic impacts on businesses and workers particularly those in informal employment and businesses. The country has witnessed job cuts across various sectors, and the incomes of businesses and available working hours for staff have fallen significantly.

 Many of the urban poor rely on informal employment to earn money for their basic needs particularly food requirements. These poor people are unable to stay at home despite the risks associated with Covid19. The cash economy that enables the informal economy has been hard hit thus leaving many of the poor more exposed and vulnerable especially female-headed families and persons with disabilities. Springs of Hope Foundation has been reaching out to lend a hand to these vulnerable groups by providing food hampers to be consumed for two weeks. Two such groups reached recently were vulnerable women who wait for daily work as cleaners in a block of apartments and a group of women who, before Covid 19 earned a living selling fruit and snacks on a bus terminus benefited from Springs of Hope Foundation food hampers.

Ngala Estate is located in Nakuru Town, opposite Bondeni Slum along Ronald Ngala Avenue. This is a middle-class estate with many high-rise apartments. In these apartments, the majority of the tenants are from the Somali Community who operate clothing boutiques in Nakuru town. On the pavements outside the apartments, a group of women camps there daily looking for cleaning jobs in the apartments. Many of them do not find work and go back home unsure of what to feed their children. Most of these women are single mothers and those that are married have absentee husbands or they are lost into cheap alcohol. In this group are also elderly women who are guardians of their grandchildren after their parents have passed away. At the same time, these women trek long distances to come and look for work. Many reside in the slums surrounding Nakuru town.

The area also hosts two special schools for children with hearing impairment and as such, there is a high presence of deaf persons seeking services and support from the schools. On this day we met several of them and they also benefited from our food hampers. Ngala School for the Deaf graciously allowed SOHF to use their compound to distribute the food hampers. On this day two of our deaf students at Kijiji Mission participated in the distribution and they were very happy to be able to assist the needy deaf persons in the community.                      

                                 BUS TERMINUS VULNERABLE GROUP

 The emergence of the COVID-19 and the limited supply of vaccines requires physical distancing as preventative measures to contain and reduce the spread of the virus. The COVID-19 has devastated economies and the communities living in all countries. For rapidly growing, densely populated, and poorly planned settlements, the situation is tragic for the inhabitants. National lockdown and social and physical distancing in response to the pandemic have escalated slum communities’ misery.

The government of Kenya through the Ministry of Health and County Government of Nakuru decided to close the main wholesale market and all bus terminals located within Nakuru central business district as a way of decongesting the town and improving on social distancing. With the displacement of the public service vehicles which were a magnet for people, many traders who operated in these areas were left destitute. A social worker approached the Springs of Hope Foundation after one of the young men selling fruit committed suicide due to his inability to provide for his young family, leaving behind a young widow and an eight-month baby boy. Many of the beneficiaries of this food hamper distribution were facing eviction from their rented houses due to the inability to raise rent while some families had broken down due to stress caused by lack of a means to earn a living.

Sixty beneficiaries were identified by the social worker and received food hampers. Ngala School for the hearing impaired once again provided a safe area to distribute the hampers in a controlled environment.

Kindest regards, 

Ephantus Wachira.

Here at Springs of Hope Foundation, we feel blessed and humbled to have such great volunteers on our team. We're also so very grateful to you for your continued support of this vital program.

Please help us continue with our mission to feed the elderly, disabled, and needy in Kenya by sharing with your social media friends and inviting them to follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/kijijimission/

Warmest regards,

Jennifer Hughes-Bystrom

Founder/CEO

Springs of Hope Foundation

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