Feed 200 Children Living in Kibera Slum

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.