NAIROBI, Kenya Oct 21 – Dozens of residents of Baringo County have benefited from food supplies and other items, including wheelchairs donated by a charity organisation with the support of the Chinese Embassy.
The donation of cereals and other items was handed by Elimu Kwanza Foundation (EKI).
“Several families in Baringo live in abject poverty, that is why I set out to seek funding to assist them,” said Dorothy Jebet, the organisation’s founder, “We have distributed food and non-food items to several families who were suffering particularly during this pandemic.”
Among the beneficiaries of the donation is a 65-year-old disabled man, Samuel Chepyegon of Talai region, who was paralysed more than 20 years ago.
“I have been suffering but i am now grateful for the wheelchair,” he said.
Locals were also given rice, maize beans among others to enable them put food on the table, with many lauding the foundation and the Chinese Embassy which gave out the donation.
Earlier this month, the Chinese Embassy in Nairobi put a smile on the less fortunate children in Ruiru by empowering a charity organisation involved in a feeding program.
The donation was made through Jewell Souls Hope Foundation, a charity organisation that has been helping feed less privileged children whose families’ economic situation was worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have been ensuring that more than 200 less fortunate children get a decent meal at least once a day from Monday to Friday since the pandemic broke out in the country,” said Caroline Ndung’u, the founder of the organisation.
She said the organisation identified the children from families around Ruiru and designated a feeding spot at an open playground where they assemble for lunch.
“We rely on well-wishers to feed these children,” she said, while serving them food on October 1, “What we are serving today and since last week was donated by the Chinese Embassy in Nairobi.”
According to Caroline, the children aged between 3 and 12 belong to parents who are jobless or lost their income when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
“All [the children] are from the neighbourhood here in Ruiru,” she said, adding that they were identified with the help of local community leaders.
“We have no words enough to thank the Chinese Embassy for coming through for us. The program is running smoothly because of them,” Caroline said, and appealed for more help from other well-wishers.
From the assistance of the Chinese Embassy, she said, “we were able to not only purchase food but other equipment and utensils for the program.”
So dire is the children’s needs that some can go without a meal were it not for the initiative, she said.
The foundation was established in 2015 as a platform for charity, mainly targetting single mothers.
Apart from the feeding program, she said, “we have been donating food and non-food stuff to single mothers in the community, many of who lost their jobs or source of income.
“The Chinese Embassy came in at the right time and we are so much grateful for their donation,” she said.
Most of the children the foundation is catering for belong to single mothers who worked in hotels, bars and other establishments which were closed since March when COVID-19 broke out in Kenya.
She appealed to other well-wishers to support the children to enable them to have a decent meal before their parents get back to work, with many staring at uncertainties.
Some of the parents interviewed in the Ruiru neighbourhood lauded well-wishers, including the Chinese Embassy for the support.
“I think it is not enough to just say thank you to all who have come to the aid of our children,” said Martha Njeri, a mother of two, “We are so grateful to all of them including the Chinese Embassy.”
Another parent, Magdalene Wangari, said the donations have helped keep the children healthy throughout the period since March, “because I do not have anything to give my children. I don’t have a job. It is the best thing that happened because the children wake up in the morning and just go to play and they never have to come back home for lunch because there is nothing at home. I am always guaranteed that they will come home after feeding.”
