The Covid-19 pandemic is further exacerbating existing vulnerabilities across the country, particularly for the urban poor.
Families living in Kibera are at an increased risk of contracting the infection due to inadequate access to water and sanitation services and cramped living conditions. Most of the parents and residents have been forced to report to work to continue providing for their families.
In response, on April 3 as part of Unicef Kenya’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, water, sanitation and hygiene supplies were delivered to Kibera.
These included 26,000 bars of soap for vulnerable families and 100 knapsack sprayers to assist Nairobi City Government in disinfecting marketplaces and other public spaces.
Unicef Kenya Chief of Communication, Advocacy and Partnership Andrew Brown added that the children’s agency is also training community health volunteers to deliver behaviour change messages, providing them with information materials such as posters and flyers, and public address systems mounted on vehicles to enable them to broadcast throughout Kibera.
Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Wilson Kibii lauded the contributions and cited Unicef support as essential to enable the local government to respond appropriately to Covid-19.
“Our partnership with Unicef is so important because we cannot manage on our own,” Wilson said.
“There are so many commodities required, so many personnel. We very much appreciate Unicef. They were actually the first ones to provide commodities to Nairobi City County,” he added.
Unicef is supporting the government as part of the UN’s Covid-19 response in Kenya.
In addition to providing water sanitation and hygiene supplies, the organisation is working with partners to help keep essential health services going, provide continued learning for children, and intensifying efforts to keep children safe.
Unicef is also providing important information for parents on the internet.
