Project Report
| Jul 8, 2019
Protect 1800 people on Kokwa Island from Malaria
By Lucy Mathenge | Project Assistant
We are happy to have another opportunity to report and update people on Kokwa Island progress. In our previous report we reported that there was urgent need of relief food for the Kokwa community due to the prolonged drought in most parts of the country where Kokwa was much affected. We appreciate all the support given by our friends towards Kokwa community. We received food donations from our good friends and we were grateful for the wonderful support, thank you very much. There have been rains in most parts of the country and we are very optimistic that there will be plenty food in the country. Kokwa has received some rains also but due to the rocky land, we are not expecting them to do any farming but in one way or the other the economic status will improve. There were plans to fundraise for mosquito nets as earlier reported but due to the urgency of relief food, we decided to address the issue first. Since now things are shaping up, we hope to embark of projects fundraising to ensure that the community health is addressed and improved. It is sad to report that the new dispensary which was being constructed by the county government is yet to be in use after so many years and the community is highly affected by the situation. The community who is out of the Island most of the times is not able to do much especially in serious cases and assisting pregnant women in delivering. Most of the women have been delivering in their small huts with very poor hygiene an issue which has been forwarded to the county government but nothing has been done. We are sensitizing the community so that they can raise their voices on the matter since the dispensary committee members have tried in vain. We will be having a meeting with them soon to discuss the issues and help them do an official letter to the county government ad if possible assist them to meet the team concerned. Community members with serious and special cases are being referred to other hospitals to seek for further medication but due to inadequate funds most of them are not going to the referral facilities which is now alarming. During our meeting with the community, we will follow up on those cases and discuss ways of addressing them. We don’t take for granted any support given to this community and on their behalf we are very grateful and appreciate the support given. Thank you very much and please don’t get tired as these community members need all us.
Apr 3, 2019
Protect 1800 people on Kokwa Island from Malaria
By Lucy Mathenge | Project Assistant
The year 2019 started well and we had students reporting back to school after long December holiday and they will be breaking for April holiday this week. It has been very dry in most parts of the country and Kokwa Island is one of those prone areas facing food insecurity and the prolonged drought make it even worse. We have many families who urgently require relief food, in our small way we are supporting those who are seriously affected but there is need for more interventions to improve the situation. We have been supporting feeding program in one of the primary school in the Island and it has been reported that it is the only meal that school going children are getting since their parents have nothing to feed them. We are appealing to our friends, relatives and all well-wishers to consider supporting Kokwa with food soonest possible. For friends, relatives and well-wishers in the country who are in a position to support the community with food stuff please contact us and we will arrange to pick the food stuff from your respective places. In the previous report we had planned to fundraise for mosquito nets to be distributed to the families in the Island but since the community is seriously food insecure at the moment we decided to divert our plan a bit and address the hunger issue. There has been several meetings with the community where it has been reported that children, women and elderly people are the most affected by the drought and we have been distributing food stuff to some families but now they whole Kokwa Island is in urgent need of relief food. We hope the government will also intervene but we are worried as this might take longer for the government to respond. There reports on the media that there are several people who have lost their lives as a result of hunger but we have not received any death case from Kokwa Island and we remain optimistic that it will not get to that point. We request those who are in a position to support us to consider sending their contribution so that we can deliver more food to the Kokwa Island community. Thank you to all those who have been supporting us on this and other initiatives in Kokwa Island as we request them not to get tired of supporting the community as they still need us for survival. We are very concerned as the school will be closing for April holiday this week and the families will have extra mouths to feed but we remain optimistic that the situation will improve soon with government and other service providers getting involved.
Jan 3, 2019
Protect 1800 people on Kokwa Island from Malaria
By Lucy Mathenge | Project Assistant
The year 2018 was good and we achieved in one way or the other, we appreciate all the support given by our Global Giving friends and partners and we wish them well in 2019. Kokwa community is counting blessings despite the many challenges they faced throughout the year and they have high hopes that the year 2019 will be more successful. As previously reported, we had a kid from the Island who required immediate medical attention and after various tests, it was recommended to have the kid operated in December 2018. Am happy to report that the operation was successfully done on 12th December 2018 and the kid responded very well. It was a complicated matter which required physiologist intervention and we supported to sessions which were done successfully. To shed more light, the kid had 2 sexual organs and since birth the kid was treated as a boy but when all the tests were done, it was confirmed that the kid was a girl. It is still a hectic moment especially for the kid to understand and accept the changes, the kid is in nursery school and since he started schooling he has been in boys’ school uniform and now the kid is expected to report school in a dress as her school uniform. We are trying to have the kid transferred from that school but unfortunately there is no other close primary school where she can go for schooling. The alternatives we have are having the kid move from nuclear family and be hosted by other family members outside the Island but we are concerned of this option as the kid requires mother’s love and care especially after the operation. The other alternative is having the whole family move from Island and settle somewhere else. The family depends on fishing for food and some little income which means they are not in a position to start a new life somewhere else. The option of relocating is much better but require support for the whole family. We are working on possibilities of supporting the family start new living elsewhere and have an income generating activity for them to move on. We call upon our friends and well-wishers to help us in supporting these needy families as we realize in the Island we have several families who are very vulnerable and they have very little for survival.
In the previous reported, it was reported that the cases of malaria are still high and we need to find ways of reducing them. Previously we distributed mosquito nets to all households in the Island but this is some years back and most of them are worn out while other families don’t have them at all. In regard to this, we hope to do fundraising for more nets so that we can distribute them a fresh as a way of reducing the disease. To achieve this, we call upon well-wishers and partners to help us raise funds to start this initiative. The current temporally dispensary have some drugs for malaria but we still need to support the dispensary where possible. Again we express our gratitude to all our friends and partners for supporting our projects and we wish them a fruit year as they continue extending support to our needy communities. Happy prosperous New Year 2019.