SOS CV KENYA SECURES 1.7M FOOD DONATION TO HELP VULNERABLE HOUSEHOLDS COPE WITH COVID-19 SHOCKS

SOS CV KENYA SECURES 1.7M FOOD DONATION TO HELP VULNERABLE HOUSEHOLDS COPE WITH COVID-19 SHOCKS

By Correspondent

Kenya’s largest private child welfare

organisation, 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 has announced that it 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.

SOS Children’s Villages Kenya National

Programs Director, Mr. Pascal Mailu said

vulnerable people are the hardest hit by

COVID-19 pandemic and the donations will help

them cope with shocks.

“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 Mr. Mailu.

Mr. Mailu said while 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 spread of coronavirus,

households that depend on daily wages and

petty 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 organisation 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 organisation does this through equipping

the caregivers with skills to help them in their

caregiving role, education and health support

and economic empowerments for the

household.

SOS children’s villages Kenya runs Education,

Health, SOS Family Care, Family Strengthening,

Advocacy and Youth Empowerment

Programmes.

SOS Children’s Villages Kenya is a member of

SOS – Kinderdorf International, the largest

private child welfare organization in the world.

In Kenya, the first SOS Children’s Village in

Kenya was opened in 1973 in Nairobi.

Additional SOS Children’s Villages were

subsequently built in Mombasa (1979), Eldoret

(1990), Meru (2005), and the latest village in

Kisumu (2012).

Currently the organization takes care of over

10,000 children and youth both in the children’s

villages and community programmes across

the country.