The Kwale based Australian mining firm Base Titanium has stepped up its food distribution programme during the coronavirus pandemic to cushion venerable households.
The Base Titanium Community Relations Manager, Pius Kassim said the food rations is meant to sustain vulnerable families impacted by the ongoing pandemic.
Kassim said the company has since March embarked on delivering emergency relief supplies in Kwale county and parts of Mombasa to sustain vulnerable populations impacted by the coronavirus.
He said the donations include wheat and maize flour, rice, cooking oil, salt, sugar, tea leaves and bar soaps to help vulnerable communities cope during this pandemic.
He spoke to the press on Monday at the Likoni sub county Salvation Army headquarters during a relief food distribution exercise.
Kassim who is coordinating Base’s community response to covid-19 said the mining firm is targeting 8,000 households across Kwale and parts of neighbouring Mombasa county benefiting close to 50,000 residents.
He said the mining firm will be distributing 4,000 parcels of food rations in the next three months in Msambweni and Likoni sub counties as a way of cushioning the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
He revealed that the company had assessed and mapped out the most vulnerable members of the community in the two sub counties up to the village level.
“Never has there been a time when community means more to Base Titanium than now,” he said, adding that Base together with other partners including the Kenya Red Cross, the National and County Government will work together towards supporting the local communities.
He said Base Titanium has been offering support to vulnerable families in Kwale, including distributing food and other non-food items, including facemasks, setting up hand washing units, infrared thermoguns and other personal protective equipment to help fight the spread of the novel corona virus.
The Likoni sub county Assistant County Commissioner, Angela Tito thanked Base Titanium for the good gesture and called upon other corporate organizations to follow the same example.
“We need more such organizations to come on board and support needy people” she said, adding that such efforts would complement the national government cash transfer to poor households.
A number of beneficiaries who spoke said the food donations would cushion them during this hard economic times brought by the covid-19 pandemic.
Shahidi Mbwana one of the beneficiaries said he had been affected by the pandemic and had no resources to provide for himself and his household.
By Hussein Abdullahi
