Life In Kenya During Covid: A Firsthand Experience

Written by Winnie, our Program Director

We trudge through the muddy path towards Nickla’s house. We can see it from where we are. It is near yet so far. Enoch and our hired boda boda rider push their motorbikes through murky water, careful not to fall or drop the food. 

That is the story in nearly every one of our food deliveries. With heavy rains and terrible roads, the process of ensuring that food gets to our girls every month is usually a difficult one. But Irine and Enoch never complain. This is what they say:

“The faces of the families when we get to the homes... So much hope, so much rejoicing. They make you forget all the challenges you have gone through.”

Most families have confessed that if Neema hadn’t come through for them, they would be sleeping hungry. In fact, some admitted that before we started the food deliveries at the onset of Covid-19, their families had had no food. 

During the lockdown, most people have been unable to work. In rural areas like Kitale, most people who rely on casual work, have had no employment and therefore unable to even afford the basics, let alone soap. So apart from food donations which include: maize, rice, beans, green grams, cooking oil, porridge, flour, and sugar, we also include non-food items such as bar soap, sanitary towels, and body oil for the young women and their babies. 

It is an intervention that was not originally in our plan, but we are glad that we responded to the immediate needs of our students. In April, Kenyans cried: If Covid-19 doesn’t kill us, hunger will. But because of Neema, that is not the reality for the young women in our program and their families. And for that we are super grateful. 

Winnie speaks to our students before Covid required them to temporarily return home.