Good Samaritan Reach out for Needy Families in Kilifi

By Ronald Ngoba

Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com

Poor families that have their children learning at Vonwald Primary and Secondary Schools received relief food supplies from Gapeka Children’s Hope Center.

The 950 families in Kilifi Seahorse area got food aid as mitigation on the impact of the ongoing El Nino rains throughout the country.

Gapeka chief executive officer Jonathan Guyo, addressing journalists at Vonwald school, said majority of those who benefited were parents who have their children learning there and in distress for support.

“The foodstuff was distributed in a fair manner such that only those from deserved families were given the food. Most of the beneficiaries are the once whose children are learning in this school.”

Every year, the center does this activity in the month of December, but this time it has been forced to do it earlier because of reports that many families had been affected by the ongoing El Nino rains.

“We have others whose homes were submerged by flood water and household items destroyed.”

The center operates Kilifi Vonwald Primary and Secondary Schools where the poor learn for free. They received Sh2 million food donation of maize flour, beans, sugar and cooking oil.

“We have donated the foodstuff so that the needy families can get something to sustain themselves for two to three weeks.”

The CEO called on other stakeholders and well-wishers to join hands in supporting vulnerable families by donating food to mitigate the effects of the ongoing rains.

“I can acknowledged that more people in Kilifi needs food assistance and other forms of livelihood support and this is why am calling upon other well-wishers to support the needy.”

According to him the ongoing rain situation will increase food insecurity in the urban settlements and across the county if no intervention are made for mitigation.

Justine Kazungu, a parent, expressed gratitude to the center for its food relief saying it came at the critical moment of their need.

He praised the intervention despite confessing that the cost of living had gone up making most of the families to sleep on empty stomachs as the ongoing rains continue affecting them hard.

Another beneficiary, Irene Kadzo said many families were struggling to place a plate on the table owing to the hard economic times.

“We are grateful that the NGO cares about us because it is hard to get casual labour which we depend on, making most of us beg for food.”