The tourism and hospitality staff and service providers rendered jobless by the Covid crisis have a reason to smile.
This is after the Kenya Coast Tourism Association and GiveDirectly entered into a partnership to support tourism sector workers on the Coast. Also to be covered are those on pay cut or unpaid leave.
GiveDirectly is a non-profit organisation operating in East Africa. It helps families living in poverty by making unconditional cash transfers via mobile phones.
The initiative will support 39,000 people with a monthly stipend of Sh4,000 for three months.
Speaking to the Star, KCTA chief executive officer Julius Owino said they had been looking for ways to support staff who were hit hardest by the Covid-19 crisis.
KCTA reached out to the US-based NGO, which has been carrying out humanitarian works in parts of Western Kenya, to provide support to some of its members in the coastal region.
“We have been looking for ways of not only supporting the industry but also how we can stand with our staffers, who are part of the industry and are the ones driving it,” Owino said.
He said the cash transfer programme is a temporary measure to cushion their staff as they remain optimistic the industry will pick up towards the end of the year with December festivities.
“We reached out to stakeholders to provide detailed lists of all their staff and their status, which we hope to go through and validate together with our partners. We expect to begin the cash transfer in the next two weeks,” Owino stated.
They are also pushing the government to lift the curfew and other Covid-19 restrictions as a way of boosting confidence in efforts to revamp the sector.
They also urged the Ministry of Health to provide more vaccines for the sector for full reopening.
“We remain optimistic that the industry will pick up. All we call for is for the lifting of the curfew and provision of vaccines to all industry players. People, both internationally and domestically, are craving to travel,” Owino said.
Edited by EKibii
