By Victor Adar
CFK, an organization that makes hand-washing accessible to people living in informal settlements, is running a water, sanitation and hygiene program known as “WASH” in Nairobi’s Kibera area in a bid to fight Covid-19.
Although CFK has long had a WASH program to encourage hand-washing by distributing soap and water stations, which was originally designed to combat diarrhoeal diseases in children, it expanded and retooled its program when the coronavirus pandemic began last year.
“We cannot return to normalcy overnight, even when fatality rates appear low. We continue to face a growing number of variants, and with low vaccine uptake in these initial weeks, there is no clear timeline as to when we might reach herd immunity. While social distancing, regular handwashing, and mask wearing have become key strategies in the fight against Covid-19, these guidelines are nearly impossible to adhere to in overcrowded informal settlements such as Kibera,” said CFK executive director Hillary Omala.
Omala noted that the latest surge of Covid-19 in the informal settlement has served as a painful reminder that the more things change the more they stay the same, adding that five to seven people often share a 10-by-10-foot home. The majority of families also lack regular access to clean water and soap, and masks can be prohibitively expensive for people living on less than Sh200 ($2) per day.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has brought to light many of the health, education, and economic inequalities that persist within countries as well as between them.”
Besides medical care, educational and job training programs to residents of Kibera CFK also offer mentorship and advocacy for young girls in the community. In 2020, staff members of Tabitha Maternity Home, which is run by the organization, were acknowledged by the Gates Foundation as frontline heroes for ensuring continuity of care during the pandemic.
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