We like giving..but not necessarily money

BY THOMAS RAJULA

The coronavirus pandemic has thrown many households into disarray. When the disease swept through the globe, leading to the imposition of a worldwide curfew and restrictions on movement for the first time in about a century, almost everyone took a hit. We started seeing businesses closing down and many citizens were rendered jobless.

The spirit of Harambee, which encourages the pooling together of resources to help the less fortunate, has always been alive in Kenyans especially during such difficult times. So as the government gradually lifts restrictions and Kenyans hope for a return to normalcy, we bring you the stories of three young people, some of who are jobless, who took up the responsibility to bring smiles on poor people’s faces.
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Loise Machira, 29
Relief Connect
“I had just started working for a start-up when the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Kenya, and I ended up getting laid off three weeks after joining the company. I didnt have enough savings so I had to move back home. I wasn’t in a good space, mentally,” remembers Loise.

In May this year, when the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company evicted more than 5,000 families from Kariobangi at dawn despite a court injunction, Loise stumbled across a video showing the affected families suffering in the biting cold. She was moved to tears, and she realised that although she didn’t have a job, she was at a better place than the displaced families.

“I could still afford my Netflix sub

criptions, but in the video there was a woman who was living in a shack. I became interested in helping that community,” says Loise. She took the contacts displayed on the video and together with a friend, they set off to Kariobangi. 

“Being there, in the middle of a pandemic, exposed me to the hardships that slum dwellers have to contend with. There was no social distancing, no one was wearing face masks, families were living on hand-to-mouth basis and the pictures of their demolished homes were heart breaking,” says Loise.

Loise’s donation and that of her friend was shared among five families, but one of the beneficiaries caught Loise’s attention. A woman who lived in a dilapidated structure and slept on a damp, smelly mattress with her four daughters revealed that she had been raped during the early morning evictions.

“She clearly needed psychological therapy, because it seemed that she had given up on life. I couldn’t believe someone could live in the same place with goats and chicken,” she remembers.

She also met David Kogi, a man who was in his sixties and whose shop had been demolished too. David sent his five children to five different households and was relying on the food donations to feed them. Loise shared David’s story on Twitter and the video went viral.

“Within five minutes, viewers started asking me how they could make contributions. I set up an M-Changa account and within a week, we had raised Sh1.2 million,” she says.

At this stage, Loise began panicking. She wasn’t expecting that much money. Additionally, she needed permits from the Nairobi County government to access the money. Luckily, someone helped her surmount this challenge despite the politics involved. She also had to set up a strong steering committee, and find people to distribute the food.

“I created a database of evictees, with details about their disposable income, rent, family size and level of education, so that I could craft a long term solution. We also encountered dishonest individuals, like one middle aged man who pretended to be living under a tree yet he had a chain of rental houses in Dandora,” explains Loise.

Soon, she was nicknamed “Loise wa 1.2 million” and everyone, including her co-workers, started demanded money from her. A slander campaign against her was initiated by faceless characters, and she started receiving threats. She was even warned against visiting the eviction site since some social media influencers had told the victims that she was being imprudent with the donation money.

Once the permits were ready, she set up a distribution point at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Kariobangi, and created an organisation dubbed Relief Connect to deflect attention from herself. The donation packages contained food, soap, sanitisers, face masks, and Sh3,000 in cash. There were also clothes, shoes, bags, kitchen utensils and beds, and only one person per family was allowed at the collection point.

“We have done five phases of distributions so far and helped more than 500 families,” says Loise.

Loise eventually closed the M-Changa kitty and opted to use organisations that are better versed with handling charity activities. As she continues looking for a job, she has trained her focus on Tizi Talks, a health and wellness platform that she started three years ago to deconstruct existing misconceptions about fitness. Her website was nominated in Best New Blog and Blog of the Year categories in this year’s Bloggers Association of Kenya Awards.

John Kyallo, 26, Global Vision Achievers

John was raised by his mother’s extended family in Thika, but he was frequently beaten, denied food and overworked, so he ran away when he was aged 14. With only Sh150 in his pocket, John took a matatu from Thika to Nairobi but as he was trying to find his mother’s house in Kibera, he got lost and was housed by a dreadlocked young man for four days.

He eventually found her, but his mother couldn’t afford his secondary school fees. Luckily, the 2010 referendum campaigns were in full gear and when John performed a poem at a function, one politician offered to pay for his high school fees. But life wasn’t any easier. 

Before long, one of his acquaintances was shot dead on allegations of being involved in crime, and John was roused to action. Together with other friends from Kibera, he started an acting group, which morphed into the Kibera Vision Achievers, a community based organisation that encourages children in orphanages to explore their talents.

When the pandemic began, John started getting calls for help, but he didn’t have the capacity to tend to the requests so he reached out to a blogger, Edgar Obare, to help him call for donations.

“My team collects surveys from the slum dwellers every Friday, and 100 individuals are carefully selected based on their situation. We buy the food from wholesalers, then we package it on Saturdays before delivering them early on Sunday mornings. In 20 weeks, we have managed to feed more than 1,300 households,” says John.

Building trust with donors was my biggest challenge as I was starting out. There are so many brief case organisations set up to fleece the public. Also, volunteers were hard to come by, especially when coronavirus cases were announced in Kibera. Those doing the distributions can only carry the food in their hands for fear of being waylaid, and this can be tiring especially when covering long distances.

Also, they have to walk in groups for safety purposes. There was also intimidation from some members of the public who wanted the donations yet they weren’t on the list, and some families went ahead and sold the donation packages. 

John and his team are now fast tracking the formation of another initiative: Mamito, for young women and teenagers who have become mothers during this coronavirus period. 

Six months after giving birth, the young girls will be enrolled in adult learning institutions where they can complete their secondary school education within two years. Those who don’t perform well in the exams will be offered vocational training courses in tailoring, baking, hair dressing, fashion or IT so that they can start their own businesses.

We are hoping to raise enough money to house and feed them as they attend their classes,” says John.

Joy Malowa, 20, Abigail’s Plate

Joy came up with name “Abigail’s Plate” from one Biblical story where a woman named Abigail brought food to king David to convince him to stop his plans of destroying their home after her husband, Nabal, had disrespected the king.

When businesses began shutting down and job cuts became frequent as a result of the pandemic, Joy reached out to seven of her close friends and asked them if they wanted to help the destitute in their community. One of them, Owen Otieno, made a poster calling on the public to make donations. Their donation packages include flour, tissue, rice, UHT milk, soap and Sh200 in cash.

“We got a list of 108 families in Kibera, who had no source of income, as well as some families in Umoja, Bungoma and Northern Kenya. To reach families outside Nairobi, we usually use our partners.
“It is really sad. Nobody should go hungry. Eating is a basic human right. We also had to get the exact numbers because we didn’t want a situation where a family of 10 got the same package that a family of three got,” says Abigail, who makes the distributions every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday with the help of her mother.

Initially, the biggest challenge we faced were people who would attempt to take two packages, or those who demanded rations yet they weren’t on our list. Whenever we have insufficient funds, we usually reduce the portions on the rations.

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