Child Welfare Organization secures Sh. 1.7M food donation to help vulnerable households cope with COVID-19 Pandemic

Kenya’s largest private child welfare organization, SOS Children’s Villages has secured food donation worth Sh 1.7 Million to help vulnerable households weather shocks from COVID-19.

SOS CV KE today announced that it has received 10 tons of packed Tender Mercies nutritious meal donation (dry nutritional grain dense meal containing rice, lentils, fractured cowpeas, full-fat soy, vitamins and minerals that is processed locally by Soy Afric Limited) courtesy of KAPU Africa, a division of Midwest Foodbank USA. 

According to the World Health organization, Children are among the vulnerable people who if not adequately supported, might be the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“SOS CV KE in partnership with other like-minded partners, we feel obliged to support the national government efforts in mitigating the social and economic consequences of this pandemic,” said SOS Children’s Villages Kenya National Programs Director, Mr. Pascal Mailu.

Mr. Mailu said that while the government has instituted different measures including a 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew and containment of movement for 21 days in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale counties to curb the spread of coronavirus, households that depend on daily wages and small scale trade, to make ends meet are finding it difficult to cope with the resulting effects.

More than 500 vulnerable households in Suba, Mombasa, Busia, and Nairobi informal settlements (Kiambiu, City Carton, Dandora, Kariobangi, Mbotela, Bahati, Uhuru, and Jerusalem) will be the main beneficiaries of this donation.

The organization said it will work with community volunteers, volunteer children officers, office of the local chief and self-help groups to reach out and distribute the food donation to targeted households in different informal settlements in Nairobi where it operates.

 “We will also extend the support to five Charitable Children Institutions that are in dire need of food assistance through the Department of Children Services, Nairobi,” adds Mr. Mailu.

SOS CV family strengthening program reaches out to 4,822 households with interventions aimed at empowering the vulnerable families to be able to protect and care for their children.

The organization does this by equipping the caregivers with skills to help them in their care-giving role,   education and health support and economic empowerment for the household.

SOS children’s villages Kenya runs Education, Health, SOS Family Care, Family Strengthening, Advocacy, and Youth Empowerment Programmes.