Feed 200 Children Living in Kibera Slum

Last month we met a new family, three girls who were all out of school and a baby girl who was very undernourished. We were connected to the family by a local youth group whose members were deeply concerned about the family. The youth group helped the oldest girl go back to school while we welcomed the two younger siblings into our programmes. The girls were in such poor health we have been giving them extra porridge each day as well as the two meals each child receives in our programmes. The mother also brings the baby along to join in the porridge. Slowly, we are seeing improvements in the girls’ health and strength and slowly they are coming out of their shells as they play with the other kids in the programmes. The girls are now on a new path, back in school and getting stronger everyday. Thank you for helping to make this life-changing work possible.

10-year-old Taji loves singing and wants to be a teacher one day. Taji already carries a lot of responsibilities at home as her mum lives away from home for work and her father is often busy doing casual labour work. Taji does most of the household chores for the family, she is usually found singing while she works.

Taji had been out of school because her parents couldn’t afford the school fees but now Taji attends our School Transition Programme. Each day she is catching up on the education she missed and will soon join the Fountains of Hope School. Her dream of becoming a teacher spurs her on.

With your help, we make sure Taji gets a nutritious and filling breakfast and lunch every day she comes to school. Thank you for your support.

On the 4th January, we welcomed back children to our education programmes in Kibera after a 9-month break.

We are picking up where we left off with children in our School Transition Programme and free primary school, the Fountains Of Hope School.

The government opted for a phased reopening of schools. So 40 children returned to the Fountains of Hope School in October last year. Now all the children who had remained out of school have returned to school and our daily feeding programme is back in action. We're providing a nutritious breakfast and lunch every day to all the children in our education programmes. 

The children are excited to be back with their friends and to have lots of activities to do each day after a long time of being at home with little to do.

We're following the government's guidelines to keep children COVID-safe. All children and staff wear masks and sit 1m apart in class, we've also added more handwashing stations to ensure all kids keep washing hands regularly.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the past year to provide food vouchers to families while the children were out of school. We provided a total of 4,173 vouchers between March and December 2020 and helped sustain families during the darkest moments of last year. We are so grateful for your partnership.

We're delighted to report that since schools closed in March 2020 we've provided 2,531 food vouchers to families hardest hit by the pandemic in Kibera. 

Numbers of Covid cases in Kenya have mercifully remained relatively low to date and the government have avoided a full lockdown. However, restrictions on movement, gathering and requirements for social distancing and PPE have taken their toll on the economy, many businesses are struggling and many people have lost their jobs. Many of our student's parents rely on casual labour and a lot of these informal jobs have not been available for a long time. 

When we surveyed our student's families, most of them were only eating one meal a day to stretch out their meagre incomes. “I miss the food I normally get at school, some days we don’t have enough food in the house” reported 10-year-old Alex, a student from the Fountains of Hope School. This is why we are providing a weekly voucher for families to collect the food they need from a local shop. 

We plan to continue providing these vouchers until January 2021 when schools are set to reopen. At this time, children will continue to receive two free meals each day at school. We still need £530 ($685) each week to make this possible, so please do consider making a further donation. 

We are so grateful for your support.

Kenya recorded its first case of Corona virus in March 2020. In a bid to slow the spread of this virus, the Kenyan Government temporarily closed all learning institutions. This meant we also closed our programmes for the time being.

School for most of our students not only represents a safe space for them to learn and grow but also a place where they are guaranteed to get two meals during school days. The closure of schools and the strained incomes of most households, therefore, meant that most of our students were not guaranteed to receive three healthy meals a day.

As an organization understanding the new challenges that faced our beneficiaries as a result of the pandemic shifted our focus and currently our activities are geared towards reducing hunger and promoting health amongst vulnerable families worst hit by the pandemic and reducing the spread of Corona virus in Kibera.

To reduce hunger among the 150 vulnerable families that we serve, we set up the food voucher system. We provide a weekly food voucher that enables families to purchase essentials from the local shops we have partnered with. This system ensures that our beneficiaries don’t walk long distances to do their shopping and we also support local businesses in Kibera. 

One of the families benefiting from this program is Sylvia’s family. Sylvia is the firstborn of three children and she lives with her father. The father worked as a night guard before the pandemic hit and could provide for his children without much strain because Sylvia had her meals in schools and her siblings also ate lunch in school. Unfortunately, he was laid off once the pandemic hit the country and therefore providing for his family became a challenge. The food voucher ensures that he can purchase food from a shop next to his home and ensure that his children remain healthy during this period.

The food voucher system means that we are catering to more than 200 students and this is more costly than running our school feeding programme. We are therefore raising additional funds to make these vouchers go further, you can support our Corona virus response directly through this GlobalGiving project page.

We look forward to resuming all our normal programmes soon. Until then, your giving ensures that the children we serve and their families continue to remain healthy.