Shoot to Score for 500 Children in Northern Kenya

After receiving the disbursement of donations received over the last 2 months for our Building Resilient Villages project, we decided to distribute foodstuff to three vulnerable families this week. 

The three families are all from the Saku sub county of Marsabit.

Based on the available budget, the following items were included in each family’s package:

1. 4kg of rice 
2. 4kg of wheat flour
3. 4kg of maize flour
4. 1 litre of cooking oil
5. 6 litres of milk
6. 4 kg of sugar
7. 250g of tea leaves
8. 500g of table salt
9. 800g of bar soap

All the 3 families collected their food packages from our office. Here are the quotes from all 3 beneficiaries, whose names we have not included for privacy purposes:  

Family 1: “May you prosper, you have given me a lot. May you prosper and may your earnings increase.”  

Family 2: “May God increase your resources and bless you for feeding my family during these difficult times.”

Family 3: “When I received the call from HODI, I was in town looking for food for my children because they had slept hungry for two days. Thank you so much and may Allah protect you from all evil and bless your work.”

Thank you

We could not have done all this without your support. We ask you to keep supporting and empowering communities here in northern Kenya. 

On behalf of all our communities and everyone on our team, we say a big thank you for your enduring support.

The pandemic in Kenya

Kenya is now in the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Over the last two weeks, cases have been rapidly increasing and the total number of cases between March 7 and 20 is 11,801. South Africa, a much larger country and with more testing capability, has 16,595 cases over the same period by comparison. 

Schools are open but activities with participants are limited. A presidential directive currently in place prohibits sports activities between participants from different schools.

Our new website

We launched our new website on March 11. The website includes a more detailed look at our programs and fresh pages for our supporters to get involved through volunteering and donations. Here is a screenshot of the new website, which you can access at hodiafrica.org. 

Compliance

We also recently completed our annual audit and financial statements for the 2020 financial year. On March 15, we  filed our annual report to the NGOs Coordination Board as required by Kenyan law. The NGOs Coordination Board is the regulator of the NGO sector in Kenya.

Our projects

• In February, we trained 7 people on football drills and child safeguarding. The coaches were trained at our office in Marsabit and safety precautions were taken. 

• In our shoot to score project, we have continued to train young girls and boys in Marsabit on life skills topics delivered through football drills. Because of the current pandemic situation, participation was restricted to participants from a school only in order to reduce mixing. The drills were delivered by trained coaches and all participants wore masks and observed social distancing. 450 girls and boys are currently participating in these sessions. 

• 76 girls and boys are training and participating in a weekly football league. The league is currently taking place in one location only due to restrictions caused by the pandemic. 

• Over 100 community members and school pupils have been using radio to learn and get important information about the pandemic and other topics. The radios are solar powered and can be charged. 

• Towards the end of last year, we distributed sanitary kits containing a reusable menstrual pad along with other basic essentials to 96 girls. We went back this year to ask them about the kits and how they have used them. Many of them have reported that they found the pads easy to use and clean. They are reusable, so they have not had to buy regular pads for the last 3 months. 

• Working with 93 women in our Qusanno village savings project, we have supported 4 registered groups to file their quarterly reports with the national government. From February 1 to March 22, 2021, these women have saved a total of KES 74,700 between them. Previously issued loans have continued to be repaid, with a total of KES 130,500 repaid during the same period. These loans have mainly been used to support small businesses, providing economic empowerment for women and their households. 

• In our sport on the cutting edge project, 27 former circumcisers have continued advocating against female genital mutilation. They reached 567 persons in February with messaging about the dangers of FGM, myths and facts about FGM and its illegality in Kenya. 

• 7 girls were directly rescued from FGM through the work of former circumcisers.

• 29 community leaders met 643 people during community meetings, religious gatherings and home visits. With these people, they discussed the dangers of FGM and encouraged community members to give up the practice.  

Thank you

We could not have done all this without your support. We ask you to keep supporting and empowering communities here in northern Kenya. 

On behalf of all our communities and everyone on our team, we say a big thank you for your enduring support.

Links:

• Our new website