Status report from Bungoma
Although one hears very little or different reports on the topic of Corona in Africa in the European media, here is a short status report from the local partner Kimilili Integrated Development Education Program (KIDEP) on site.
The reported numbers of corona infections in Africa seem very low. The reasons for this are: there are hardly any tests, causes of death are also not determined and can therefore hardly be traced back to Corona. The fact is that the country has been in partial lockdown since May: schools, shops and many organizations remain closed and there are night curfews. Because digitization is not advanced, neither distance learning nor home office is an alternative – as is the case when a large part of the rural population does not even have access to electricity.
At least the primary schools (elementary school as day school) have been reopened since December 2020, although not all students have come to class. Many children have to help out at home in the villages because their parents have lost their jobs as day laborers. Every Kenya shilling is now needed for food, so the school fees for the children can no longer be paid.
The fate of Rose, the orphan girl we reported back in March, is particularly shocking. 15-year-old Rose lives remotely in the country with her grandmother and first wanted to graduate from Nakalira primary school. Rose repeatedly had to take years off classes because her grandmother couldn’t raise the money for the girl’s school fees.
Since the schools were closed for months due to the corona, Rose spent a lot of time in the village. The girl is now pregnant and will only be able to continue school after the child is born. Father is an unemployed young man from her village with zero income prospects. Our local partner KIDEP visited the girl and agreed that Rose’s grandmother would look after the child so that the teenage girl could at least finish primary school and learn to read and write.
From January 4, 2021, all schools in Kenya should reopen their doors by the government of schools. All strict corona requirements are allowed. Hand hygiene, physical distance in classrooms and dormitories. If you know the pictures from our previous blog post, you know that this is not possible – many schools are not even pulled over exporting water, they are also pulled from a well. And how should the names in the above classrooms and bedrooms be assigned a minimum distance of 1m? In addition, every student must have 5 cloth masks from January.
Thanks to donations from MOYO, masks could be produced for needy schoolgirls. Since many schoolgirls cannot even afford the simple warm lunch, our local partner KIDEP handed over sacks of corn and beans to the primary schools in Sossio and Nakalira.
MOYO thanks all donors. Asante sana!