Five hundred Machakos households have been reprieved after they received relief food donations from betPawa, a betting company, in partnership with the Betting Control and Licensing Board.
The beneficiaries are among the 3,000 households that were recently affected by the raging floods in Athi River, Machakos.
Betting Control and Licensing Board chairperson Jane Makau presided over the donations.
She was accompanied by several betPower officials led by country marketing manager Simon Mwangi and hosted by Mavoko assistant county commissioner Fredrick Kimani.
They donated the assortment of food stuff at Mavoko chief Nzau Komo’s office on Friday.
Makau lauded the betting firm for what she termed a generous contribution to the vulnerable through Corporate Social Responsibility.
“Today, we bring yet another Corporate Social Responsibility initiative, food donations to flood victims of Athi River, Machakos County. These are residents whose lives have been disrupted by the floods recently experienced in most parts of the country including Machakos County,” Makau told the press during the donations.
She said the donations included 5kgs of maize flour, 2kgs of sugar, 2kgs of rice, 3litres of cooking oil, among others.
Makau said as a board, they had been encouraging all betting firms to undertake CSR and partner with the government in uplifting lives especially those less privileged in the society, in this case, those affected by floods.
“We heard the President during his Prayers Day speech say that we expect the rains to continue for the next seven years. So, as a board, we have been encouraging the betting firms to undertake CSR for national building," Makau said.
"Today, we have brought 500 families in Mavoko an assortment of food items, courtesy of one of the betting companies, betPower.”
Mwangi said other than the food, they flagged off 60 water tanks of 5, 000 litres each to 14 counties across the country as part of their CSR initiatives.
“As betPower Kenya, we are here today in Mavoko, initiating one of our CSR campaigns. We are giving back to communities through food aid to flood victims. This is an initiative we undertake through a partnership with the Betting Control and Licensing Board,” Mwangi said.
Mwangi said the counties that benefited from the water tanks included Makueni, Machakos, Kilifi, Uasin Gishu and Turkana.
He said they were happy that communities would be able to benefit from ‘these’ CSR activities which they were undertaking as a company.
“We commend the board for the support and also for partnering in areas we can give back to the country. We look forward to doing more in the future,” Mwangi said.
Mwangi said they used data from Ipsos that shows households adversely affected to identify beneficiaries for the donated tanks.
“Through the Ipsos report and in collaboration with the betting board, we were able to identify households that need this help in the 14 counties,” Mwangi said.
Kimani thanked both the betting firm and board for the donations that he said were much needed by the flood victims.
“I thank the board’s chairperson who has promised to bring us more donations. We have over 3,000 flood victims in the area. But, for today, we have issued the donations to 500 households, and beneficiaries,” Kimani said.
He appealed to other well-wishers, corporations and philanthropists to follow suit and support the victims through charitable donations.
“We have victims who are yet to settle. The most affected villages include Juakali, Kwa Nzomo, Kwa Mang’eli, Cheleni and Ngimo,” Kimani said.
“Out of the five villages, we selected 100 beneficiaries from each, critically affected. They included the elderly, persons living with disabilities and most underprivileged,” Kimani said.
