Food as a basic need, as the first piece to build up a community, as the first intervention to support health care and work assistance.
On October 16th we celebrate World Food Day. An extremely important day, especially this year.
The food emergency in the slums
We have recently started our new programme to support the slum community, which turned out to be necessary to face the severe food and social crisis hitting Nairobi slums’ families.
This programme helps slums community to get out of today’s emergency situation through different actions, from health assistance to microcredit. However, after the first weeks of lockdown the situation was really troubled. Then we had to start from basic needs and from food specifically, to build up the basis of the community again.
We started from food
As we have already told you, with no food there is nothing to talk about. With no food, children, men and women suffering from chronic diseases cannot take those treatments allowing their illnesses not to get more severe. With no food, families cannot even think to send their children to school. In the end, with no food all other needs disappear and get less important.
Therefore, the first actions we are still taking with slums’ families involve the right to food, to eat healthly and to have a meal at least once a day.
The Waldensian Church with the most vulnerable people
In this new and difficult situation, the Waldensian Church rose to the challenge with us and did its best to support the right to food of children living in Nairobi. In the past, because of Waldensian “8×1000” we could guarantee healthy and regular meals to those children attending our baby care centre and our primary schools and to those living in our orphanage. We could prevent malnutrition from worsening and leading to severe clinical cases.
As soon as we realized that the food crisis in Nairobi was severe and that it was necessary to start to deliver food package to families who were starving, the Waldensian Church immediately to supported us and guaranteed its help also for next year.
Thanks a lot to the “8×1000” of the Waldensian Church for its commitment and its support in this emergency!
