WASHING OUT COVID-19 IN SLUMS

Ever since Kenya reported her first case of Covid-19 in mid-March, life slowly started changing for the worst. The various good plans that people had for the year were suddenly halted, global events cancelled. Literally everything was at a standstill. Kenya was slowly starting to come into terms with the new normal.

As the number of infected cases continued to rise, the government decided to put on restriction measures in order to try and curb the spread of this deadly disease that was now spreading like wild fire. Some of these measures put in place by the government have directly had an impact to the common citizens. My mother just like majority of the citizens lost her job, she was working in one of the hotels within Mombasa county. Hospitality industry was one of the hardest hit sectors by the pandemic.  Tourists were evacuated back to their countries and the head of state closed the Kenyan air space meaning no tourists could come into the country as a result many hotels were left empty and this led to mass layoff of many workers within the hospitality industry. Other vital sectors such as the transport sector were also adversely affected with the order of cessation of movement in and out of Nairobi metropolitan region, Mombasa and Mandera. These orders impacted the economy in a negative way. Majority of citizens lost their sources of income, they could no longer afford to have regular meals and pay their house rent in time.

It became even more difficult for those living in informal settlements. Most of those living in the informal settlements are usually casual workers who have to leave there houses each and every day in search of jobs. Most of them do laundry for those living in rich neighborhoods, something that became impossible because everybody was being advised to stay at home. To make matters worse, informal settlements in Nairobi metropolitan region such as Kibra, Kawangware and Mathare started to record very high numbers of covid-19 cases. This brought about stigma hence the few slum residents who were still getting an opportunity to work for those living in Porsche estates were also denied access into these estate with the claim that they would infect others with covid-19.

It is because of this worrying statistics that I decided to start up a hand washing initiative in the informal settlements of Bangladesh, Owino Huru, Kwapunda and Ganahola in Mombasa County. This was after the WHO confirmed that one of the best ways to help prevent the spread of this disease was through washing of hands regularly with soap and running water. I run this initiative together with Pwani Youth Network, a non-profit youth organization operating within the coastal counties of Kenya and with its headquarters in Mombasa County. Under this initiative, we sensitize residents of these informal settlements on how to best wash their hands with soap and water. Some members of the organization who were trained on how to make liquid soap have been working round the clock to make the soap and we distribute to these residents since many of them cannot afford to buy soap. We also show them how to properly put on and dispose face masks without risking getting infected.

I also run a mental health campaign in conjunction with the hand-washing initiative that helps in offering counseling services to those facing mental health challenges as a result of the effects of Covid-19. The hand-washing initiative is so far proving to be fruitful this is because the informal settlements within Jomvu  sub-county where the initiative has been running has so far not yet recorded even a single case of Covid-19 to date. This motivates me and the entire team to keep going and even launch similar initiative in other informal settlements of Mombasa County. I became the change I wanted to see.
 by Clinton Ndege
Editor Alfred Sigo