NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 12-Geencard Mtaani and Mastercard Foundation have partnered on a project seeking to sensitize residents of Kibera and part of Lang’ata on the effects of the COVID-19 pademic and how to navigate through the period.
The project dubbed #ItsUpToUs is aimed at helping the residents realise economic recovery and remain resilience through various activities such as Village Savings and Loans, Soaps Making Training targeting 160 People under 16 groups.
Other activities include water supply to 16 villages (30,000 lts daily, total 180,000 Litres), Wash Training to 12 Schools with 30 children per School ( 6 wards) as well as 40 Hand-wash Stations (2 per ward in 7 wards ,12 Schools 2 per School and 2 at the office).
Officials in in the two organisations said they will also help the community conduct 7 Clean up activities as well as sensitization forums and art sessions among others.
Also lined up is a sensitisation through community Groups, Sports & Art Sessions, Village Forums, CHV Training, School Representatives training, Media and Graffiti drawings to be done in 12 Schools, 5 Sports Fields and 10 others on Main Roads.
Sensitisation programs by Greencard Mtaani in partnership with MasterCard Foundation will help the residents form savings groups and develop financial discipline.
Locals will also be encouraged to come up with business models which they will be assisted to implement.
Greencard Mtaani founder Fredrick Juma says the training which is already ongoing and is set to conclude by January next year will go a long way in improving the livelihoods of the residents.
“We are also having training, Village Saving and Loans Associations (VSLA), where the plan is to train 160 people from 16 villages whereby we are training 10 people from every village,” Juma said.
“We are trying to give resilience and recovery to the people,” he added.
With the COVID-19 pandemic having placed a heavy burden on many Kenyans economically, Juma noted that the Mastercard partnership will roll out other projects that will help alleviate the living conditions of the residents in the slum.
“We are also setting up handwashing stations in all the wards in Kibra and its environs, we will have 2 stations per ward and this will be manned by Community Health Volunteers (CHV) who have been trained by AMREF and the Ministry of Health and deployed to various remote areas to provide services,” said Juma.
Youth will also receive training on how to make soap and fabric softeners to support the local economy.
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