By: Stefanie Strothmann, AKP Kenya Coordinator

KENYA | COVID-19 has drastically changed the world we live in. People are struggling to make ends meet, immunity is low due to an unknown virus, and the world we used to know no longer exits. Drastic measures have been put in place to improve the safety and well-being of individuals by asking them to engage in good hygiene habits that include, but are not limited to, hand washing, wearing masks, and maintaining a distance of 1.5- 2M. In Kenya, we can see how useful these measures have been which has led to a much slower incline of cases compared to western countries. However, one key area of the economy’s GDP, tourism, has suffered and as a result, the communities we support have been experiencing numerous hardships as well.

Abercrombie & Kent Philanthropy (AKP) knows how challenging it has been for many working people, but knows it is much harder for the members of the communities that we support since they heavily rely on tourism to make ends meet. That is why we decided to support our communities with emergency food relief. We have distributed over 21,088 kgs (46,393.60 Ibs) of food that consist of rice, beans, and porridge to our communities.

We have fed 114 households: 838 people, in total, for four months. Each household received the following:

• 30 kgs of beans
• 25 kgs of rice
• 2 kgs of porridge

Many of them have been extremely thankful and grateful for the support, especially when it comes to their children. I, on behalf of AKP, and our communities want to extend a sincere thank you to our donors for allowing us to provide such assistance. I’ll leave you with a heartfelt note from one of the Head Teachers of a school and community we support in the Mara:

“Hello Stefanie, on behalf of Enkereri Staff and Enkereri Community, I would like to say thank you for the noble gesture of foodstuff supplied to us especially during this COVID-19 pandemic. It has hit us hard but our pupils can now be able to afford a smile now that their stomachs are full. Our teacher’s gratitude is overwhelming. We do say thank you a million times…Thanks a lot and pass our kind gratitude to the A&K philanthropy and the Angels that are blessing us.”