COVID FOOD DISTRIBUTION
The entire team at Summit Recruitment & Search is committed to working with the less fortunate groups within our society. With the pandemic hitting hard, we have devoted ourselves to initiatives that align with our corporate values from which the neigbouring society can benefit. Read below a report from a group that we’ve been supporting, Friends of Dagoretti.
“Knowing how many cries there are for help around us at this time we are hugely grateful to those of you who have chosen to send donations to help us give food packs to our young people and their families. To date we have received a total of 580,510 Ksh in donations and it seems appropriate now to tell you something of how it is being used.
On Tuesday morning 5th May Pop (Chairwoman) and Louise (Secretary) joined Catherine (Social Worker) at Mahali Pa Watoto School in Dagoretti from which we operate. Despite, or perhaps as a result of, social distancing there was plenty of activity albeit the school was shut to its regular little pupils. In the shade against one wall of the courtyard was a double length of coloured grocery bags (each one containing cornflour for ugali, rice, wimbi porridge, green grams & soap) and each topped with 2 handmade masks.
The children had been given timeslots in order to avoid crowding. Despite the barrier of our face masks we were keen to talk and hear about the effects of the pandemic on the lives of the young people we support, and also their families. Most of the youngsters are receiving work from their schools online but many were having difficulty with using apps on old phones. Their parents usually seek ‘kibarua’ (work on a daily informal basis) generally in catering (in its broadest sense), cleaning or construction. Building work continues in many cases, but most other employment is on hold and therefore not paid. Not one child complained or bemoaned the situation apart from the wearing of masks – “it’s hot”!! Everything is fine most of them told us – but some days we don’t eat. Catherine has been speaking to their mothers who are the ones who borrow, worry and work it out between them and share with neighbours who have even less. The really desperate ones are given a little extra.
We impressed on them the need to follow the government rules so that, hopefully, Kenya remains less impacted than Western countries as it has been so far. A group of mothers from the school were busy, making face masks both for the charity families but also to sell to the prisons amongst others.
Again, we thank all those of you who have shown your continued confidence in us by donating in order to help us to feed the families of these children. Who knows how long this situation will continue but we hope that we can continue to be there while we are needed.“
