Keeping Our Community Safe

Three Ways Kenya Connect is Responding to the Covid-19 Pandemic

1. We’re washing our hands!— “If you’re healthy and you know it WASH YOUR HANDS!” We’ve been at the forefront of hand washing since 2011 when we installed our 1st hand washing station at the Learning Resource Center. Along with installing hand washing stations at all 58 Kenya Connect partner schools, we have taught effective hand washing techniques with the song, “If you’re healthy and you know it wash your hands,” painted the colorful Henry the Hand Foundation’s hand washing tips on school water tanks, created a liquid soap making program at partner schools, and employed the Public Health Officer to discuss effective hand washing during all deworming sessions.  Hand washing has always been a key way to keep kids healthy and in school, and now more than ever, it saves lives.
2. We’re keeping our distance! We miss the hum of programs at the Learning Resource Center: students’ joyful chatter as they create “video letters” for their friends via LevelUp Village classes, teachers learning how to incorporate the CBC through interactive activities and fun and movement oriented “Brain Breaks,” and students giggling as they make an icon move during a coding exercise.  We miss taking our “Magic School Bus” and “Reading Rover Truck” to schools for Library Days and seeing children run to the check-out table to pick out new books.  As much as we would love to be hosting programs while the Kenyan schools are closed, we are keeping our distance and encouraging others in the community to do so too.
3. We’re Making Face Masks! Our staff and women who make the Resusable Wings Poa Sanitary Pad kits are now making face masks! Using local fabric and a WHO recommended pattern, our team is making face masks that will be distributed to the most vulnerable in our community as well as Boda Boda (motorcycle) drivers who provide essential transportation to villagers deep in the hills and community public health volunteers.  With written instructions for proper use and care, the masks are distributed with assistance from the community Public Health Officer.  The Kenyan Minister for Education urged ALL Kenyans to wear masks to the market, to gather water and when visiting other public places.  Thanks to a VERY successful Johnson and Johnson CaringCrowd fundraiser and match, our team will be providing over 2500 masks to keep the community healthy by decreasing the risk of spreading the virus.

Keeping our Community Safe:  Kenya Connect is leading the way.

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