Some 500 needy families in Likoni sub county of Mombasa on Saturday received food assistance from the Kwale- Based Australian mining firm in the wake of the coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic.
The donations included wheat and maize flour, rice, cooking oil, salt, sugar, tea leaves and bar soaps and sanitary towels to help vulnerable communities cope during the pandemic.
Food stocks were also delivered to the Likoni School for the blind where the county government recently set up a 30-bed isolation centre where currently 60 people are quarantined.
Base Titanium community relations manager Pius Kassim said the beneficiaries are extremely poor families that require humanitarian assistance during these difficult economic times.
Kassim revealed that the company had assessed and mapped out the most vulnerable members of the community in parts of Kwale and Mombasa counties up to the village level.
He said the mining firm in the past two months has supported 1,600 extremely poor families with assorted food items in the two coastal counties.
“The relief food assistance to the needy households is meant to increase their resilience during this difficult economic times brought about by the covid-19 pandemic” he said.
Kassim who is coordinating the mining firm’s response to covid-19 disclosed that the company will be distributing 4,000 parcels of food rations in the next three months to the poor as a way of cushioning them from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
He said at the Shika Adabu Chief’s office where the food distribution exercise took place that the company is still identifying needy families rendered more vulnerable amid the coronavirus pandemic in the region.
Likoni sub county Deputy County Commissioner (DCC) Francis Kazungu welcomed the donations saying many families are struggling to maintain an income during the covid-19 crisis.
He said 9,000 vulnerable people in the sub county receive monthly stipends of Sh.1, 000 from the national government to cushion them from the adverse effects of covid-19.
“The cash assistance to the needy is to ensure they are able to purchase essential food and other necessary items in order to cope with the situation” he said.
The sub county administrator said more families who have lost jobs because of covid-19 restrictions to contain spread of virus are set to receive food aid from the government in the month of June.
Several beneficiaries who spoke to the press at the food distribution centre said they are struggling with economic and social hardship that has worsened since the country went into restrictions to battle the pandemic.
By Hussein Abdullahi
500 needy families receive food aid in Likoni
