Australian owned mining company Base Titanium has donated food and non-food items to the Kwale county government as part of the county emergency response kitty to help vulnerable families affected by the coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic.
The food consignment was handed to the governor Salim Mvurya at the county headquarters’ in Kwale town on Wednesday.
Among the items donated include 27 tonnes of maize, 13.5 tonnes of beans, 5 tonnes of rice, 1000 litres of cooking oil.
Other items which were handed to the county administration include 15,000 surgical masks which will be distributed to front-line workers like doctors, nurses and police officers manning roadblocks within Kwale and 1,200 litres of hand sanitisers.
Base has also pledged to donate medical Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) in the fight against the coronavirus disease.
Base Titanium community relations manager, Pius Kassim said the company was also in the midst of erecting 40, 3000 litres hand washing units across Kwale to help residents embrace the hand washing initiative which has been recommended by Ministry of Health to help curb the spread of the deadly virus.
“This is an initiative which we saw fit as a company to support the county government of Kwale and by extension the people of Kwale as we face this virus,” said Kassim.
“We know as the virus continues to spread a lot of people have been rendered jobless and are in dire need of food that’s why today we want to support the devolved unit with these food and non food stuff which will go a long way to feed and help fight the spread,” he said.
Kassim also announced that the mining firm will be supporting police officers manning roadblocks with water as they continue with their work to man border points as the cessation of movement announced by the national government within the three coastal counties of Mombasa, Kwale and Kilifi continue to take effect.
Governor Mvurya thanked the mining firm for the donations saying the consignment will go a long way in combating emerging cases during this period.
“Indeed this is a commendable show of solidarity and we want other well-wishers to come on board during this time of health crisis,” he said.
Mvurya said the medical PPEs will immediately be released to the health department for distribution, while the food stuff distribution team, working together with Red Cross will prepare the modalities for distribution to the needy households.
”We remain on course in the fight against this pandemic and still appeal for more donations from all well-wishers, stakeholders, citizens and partners,” said Mvurya who chairs the county covid-19 management and coordination response committee.
Mvurya said 67 percent of the residents of Kwale were in dire need of food and announced plans by the county government to allocate Sh.160 million in its budget to help in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus,
The governor thanked God for not having other covid-19 infections in the county since the initial one confirmed case of a foreign national a month ago and commended area residents for adhering to the set health regulations.
By Hussein Abdullahi
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