The Hands of Love Educational Centre is in Kariobangi, a very economically challenged area of Nairobi, Kenya. Most of our students live in one-room housing without running water. Community toilets are shared by 15-20 households. Living in such conditions makes maintaining good health a challenge, but not impossible.
How we are helping day to day
Health monitoring is an important part of our work since our students often struggle with skin and gastrointestinal infections. Often, the simple things we provide make the biggest difference.
- Educating students on all levels about personal hygiene, safety and nutrition.
- Ensuring our students have healthy, protein-rich meals twice a day, six days a week.
- Providing a good pair of shoes to protect children’s feet in streets that are often overrun with garbage and raw sewage.
- Distributing deworming and antifungal pills on a regular basis.
- Facilitating hospital visits, when necessary
Due to these measures, we have almost eliminated cases of ringworm and greatly reduced skin infections. Home visits and quick medical interventions also enable us to minimize isolated outbreaks, such as chicken pox. As a result, attendance has improved over the years.
How we are handling COVID
On March 15, 2020, the Kenyan government shut down all schools and colleges due to the outbreak of COVID cases. The schools were not reopened until January of 2021. During the closure, the Hands of Love team developed several solutions to meet the needs of our students and families.
Our food program was initially facilitated through the delivery of food staples directly to homes. We then transitioned to providing families with vouchers to redeem at nearby stores.
Education efforts were challenging because unlike children in more economically stable situations, our students did not have access to online learning. We created a WhatsApp group, which reached about 45% of the parents. We also created grade-appropriate workbooks and distributed pencils, crayons and craft materials to all our students. By working together with their families, we were able to continue our students’ education.
Recommended health measures were encouraged through the distribution of water dispensaries to families as well as hand sanitizers, soap and face masks.
Today, most of the COVID protocols have been lifted by the government, however, we continue to use temperature screenings, handwashing and masks at school to minimize the spread of any illnesses.