On Friday, 13 March, Kenya announced its first confirmed case of Covid-19. As of July 12, there were 10,105 confirmed cases of corona virus infections. After the third case was confirmed on Sunday 15 March, President Kenyatta announced that schools would be closed effective the next day.
The closure adds additional challenges to our ability to best serve our students and their families – particularly because so many of our students rely on the two meals/day that they receive at Hands of Love. It is also difficult because, unlike children in more economically stable demographics, our children do not have access to online learning.
We decided the best way to keep our students nourished was to deliver food staples to them directly at home. Later, we changed from providing food directly to giving families vouchers which they could redeem at a nearby store for food. As of May 22, we have given over 4,500kg (9,921 pounds) of food and vouchers worth more than Ksh450,000 ($4,500) to 130 families. Currently, we are offering vouchers worth Ksh2,400 ($24) to each family every three week.