These past 11 months
Dear friends of Kenya Kids Can,
The fascinating and terrible thing about a pandemic is how it leaves no place untouched. Even the isolated swaths of the valley floor, where many of our KKC students live, have felt the reverberations of illness, school closures, a contracting economy.
Here’s what the past 11 months have looked like for our students:
March
Kenya confirms its second Covid-19 case, prompting the government to close schools.
April
With the help of area chiefs, Lucy and our teachers distribute our remaining stores of maize and beans to thousands of our most vulnerable families.
May – July
Kenya extends school closures. Very few of our students have access to a family smartphone, making online learning impossible. Some of our students gather around radios for short broadcast lessons.
As we can no longer provide school lunches, we shift to supplying staples to our students’ families. Area chiefs help us organize distributions and ensure that food makes it into the hands of families with children.
August
Our KKC teachers visit students’ homes and neighborhoods to distribute soap and masks, and to teach families how to build hand-washing stations.
October – November
Kenya begins a phased reopening, bringing students in grades 4, 8, and 12 back to school. Distancing and hand washing prove difficult, halting further reopening. Students in all other grades remain home.
We provide in-person lunches and computer lessons to students at school, and continue distributions of food and household necessities to families with kids at home.
January
Kenya orders schools to open, and our students come flooding back. Enrollment at our KKC schools grows as many private schools have closed, unable to withstand the financial losses of the past year.
We resume our full lunch and computer program.
More lunches than ever
By our most recent count, we are now feeding 19,628 children.
In many parts of Kenya, school attendance is down as parents struggle to pay school fees, or children must work to make ends meet. But the reality for our KKC kids is different. In all but one of our schools, we are feeding more students than ever.
Families value their children. It is our hope now as always that the certainty of a filling school lunch and computer education compels parents to send their children to school.
Thank you!
So much has shifted over the past year, but your love for our students has remained resolute. Your unflagging generosity provided food for our KKC families during this time of acute need. Thank you for teaming with us to help our kids not just survive, but grow.
Kenya kids can, because of you.