The kids kitchen: daily meals in the wake of Covid

Maria aged 35 is a mother of three children; Sahr aged 5 years in Nursery II, Tenneh aged 10 years in primary class 4 and Faith aged 12 years in primary class 6. Her husband who is a private soldier was sent to work in the boarder close to Liberia, and is married to another woman with 3 other children. To maintain her own children, Maria sells Arts and Craft along the beach, and she also owns a stall to display her goods. Her trade largely depends on the tourism sector, which is one of the most affected sector by the COVID-19 in Sierra Leone.

Maria used to buy books, bags, shoes and uniform for all her children before the reopening of schools for every new school year. All the three children were promoted to a new class and that brought joy to Maria and the children. The sad part of it is that because of the impact of COVID-19 she couldn’t save money to buy books, bags, shoe and new uniform for them to start the new school year in their new classes. She decided to come to the school to ask for help.

Bread and Water for Africa are currently working hard to raise funds to help Maaria and other mothers like her.

Key Achievments: As schools in Sierra Leone are currently closed due to the lockdown measure, this also means doors of the Kids Kitchen have to remain closed too. To be able to still help the community and continue to support the families in need, the Project became creative and reallocated its funds. Due to the experience with the Ebola crisis, the team was aware of the communities’ needs in a serious situation like this one and was able to respond quickly. In united effort with the Local Women’s Organisation to which over 90% of all women in the community belong, the kids kitchen was able to identify 100 of the most vulnerable households. The funds usually used for the project was invested in buying food and essential goods and distributed to the poorest households in the community. Clean water is always a scarce and much need resource, yet in the face of a pandemic becomes even more important. Besides helping families with food, supplying them with drinking and cooking water is vital. Together with the funds provided by Bread and Water for Africa, the kids kitchen was able supply water to the community and reach over two thousand people.