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Corona Virus Situation in Kenya
Following the outbreak of the corona virus, I want to first assure that my prayers are with our donors, supporters and your families who have been affected directly or indirectly by this virus. Given the so many questions that many people have about the virus, I can only imagine what those who may be affected must be going through.
A few of you have asked me about the situation in Kenya and I want to share some information on Kenya and how the virus is impacting our operations. It seems that the number of infected people and the overall impact is still unfolding, so today’s information may change in the next few days or weeks. For example, as of today, there are 3 confirmed corona virus cases in Kenya. To our knowledge, none of our sponsored children, their immediate families and our field staff have been infected or directly impacted by this disease. The government of Kenya has set up two testing centers in the capital city of Nairobi and four regional ones across the country. They have also set up regional isolation wards in a few hospitals across the country.
More specifically, the government has instituted immediate changes to curb the spread, some of which have implications on our operations. Among other directives, the government has suspended entry into Kenya by people from all countries affected by the Covid-19 disease for 30 days. This move may affect the vison teams traveling from the US this summer; however, we are NOT cancelling the trips at this time. Our hope is that we will be able to make a definitive decision by the end of April when we know more about the impact of this disease and the travel ban has been lifted.
The government has also closed all schools in a phased-out schedule beginning Monday 16th through Friday 20th this week. While we applaud the government for taking measures to protect the citizens, the move has financial implications that we didn’t anticipate. We are faced with an emergency need to assist students from our girls boarding high school as well as hundreds of students from other high schools and colleges across the country who need our help. This is anticipated to be a major expense that was not in our budget.
Also, in the healthcare sector, we have several emergency needs that we need to meet. First, we need to equip our staff with the necessary protective gear as they treat patients with the symptoms. There is need for additional medication to serve any patient upsurge as we refer them to designated testing centers. We also need to send some of our medical staff for training on how to deal with patients who show the symptoms of the virus. And finally, we have no idea what the financial implication could be should any of our sponsored children or staff get infected.
At times like this, we turn to God more than ever before for protection, especially given the overall poor state of healthcare system across the country and limited resources to address this issue, especially if it turns out to be a pandemic. I am also asking you to prayerfully consider a donation to our Hope Fund. We rely on this fund to meet emergencies such as this virus. Our goal is to raise $5000 in the next two weeks to meet this need. Please remember, there is no amount that is too small to make a difference! Thank you for your donation to help us address these health and educational emergencies.
As always, thank you for caring,
Stanley M. Mutunga, President/CEO
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