Kibera relief with Drug Fighters and Counseling

Kibera relief action

with

Drug Fighters and Counseling for the Young Generation (2008)

We were approached by a small grass-root level development organisation Drug Fighters and Counseling for the Young Generation operating in Kibera pleading for assistance in their efforts to distribute food and blankets to the victims of post-election violence. Kibera was one of the worst hit areas in Kenya. Liana members and supporters donated a total of 2448 euros to this activity. Vantaan Energia, an energy company in Finland contributed 1000 euros of the total amount. In total (in three parts in January and February) we donated as follows: Maize 3264kg, Blankets 104, Rice 400kg, Beans 540kg, Cooking fat 456 jars of 500g, Soap 300 long bars of 700g, Unimix porridge mix 275kg, Millet infant porridge flour 60kg.

Kenya was hit by a serious wave of violence after the disputed elections at the end of 2007. The worst hit areas were some of the slums in Nairobi and some specific areas upcountry.

"Please Juha do you have friends that you can talk to, may be they could support us in this reach out mission?"

Liana's Chair Eija Soini in Nairobi was approached by Juha Ruotoistenmäki on the 18th of January forwarding a plead from a small organisation, "Drug Fighters and Counseling for the Young Generation" working in Kibera slum. The project was caught in the middle of violence and chaos. Extracts from letters from Martha and Agnes of the Drug Fighters.

"In Kibera, houses burnt down and most people have been displaced from their houses, businesses burnt down, lives lost, I mean it's just incomprehensible. Children and women as usual are most affected. ... Most of the displaced families are camping at Jamhuri Show ground but we still have more families in Kibera, some are injured and are just in the houses. The ones who are at the camps are being served by the Red Cross ...and the individual organizations and churches that are donating towards the crisis. The problem is that, the people who have been left behind ... have nobody to reach out to them. ... We resumed work from 7th, myself, Martha, Frida and Teacher Irene. We were reaching out for our children whose homes got burnt and they were nowhere to be found. ... we are still trying to trace the rest one hundred and something, at the same time we are feeding the displaced families in dire need of food and beddings. ... After conducting a survey and finding many victims who could not access help from Red cross, we started lobbying for foodstuffs and clothes to help them. ...We are still meeting very desperate people on the ground who have not been reached by anyone and so the number is increasing day by day. Because of the insecurity in Kibera, we do not take the food to the grounds. We go out and mobilise these families and we distribute the food from Mbagathi District Hospital Hall. This helps us to avoid those people who would always want to take advantage of the situation."

Liana board was called together for e-mail consultation on Friday afternoon immediately after the mail from Juha. We are not a relief organisation. However, we have an interest in Kenya, three of the members live just 15km from Kibera, there is incredible misery out there, and we can do our part in helping. So, it was our unanimous decision to act according to our small abilities.

We bought 864kg of maize flour, 60kg of infant millet porridge flour and 104 blankets. On Sunday the 20th Kirsi, Jukka and Eija loaded a Land Rover and a RAV4 to the brim and drove to the edge of Kibera. The total bill was 47,484Ksh, slightly less than 550 euros. The food and blankets were distributed the following Monday by Drug Fighters.

Eija sent a letter on the 23rd to Liana members and a bunch of her closest friends pleading for more money. Liana members approached some of their friends whom they thought would be willing to donate. In just few days we got together 2448 euros in total. The biggest donation, 1000 euros, came from Vantaan Energia, an energy company in Finland! One of the spouses of Liana members has previously worked for the company, thus the connection. The rest of the sum came from individual donors, 18 persons/couples in total.

90,000Ks was sent by M-Pesa (money sending service by Safaricom mobile phones) on the 28th January. But most of the week was chaos in Kibera. An opposition MP was shot dead on Monday night and it triggered more riots and unrest. Just when we thought it is going to get calmer again, another opposition MP was shot dead. And more riots broke out. The distribution of food was delayed till Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd February as it was too dangerous to operate, the distributors could not get to the distribution point and the people couldn't come to get the food.

"We received the funds on Monday, we had planned to buy the stuffs yesterday [Tuesday] and distribute them yesterday [Tuesday] but little did we know how the day was going to be like. It was a horrible day in Kibera and Ngumo(where our offices are). We woke up to chaotic day; killings and burnings everywhere. We were attacked on our way to the office, we had to flee for our safety. ... Nobody was injured and nothing was taken from us. Today [Wednesday] the violence has reduced but very high tension. Eija, we can't even comprehend all what is happening, it all seems like horror movies not a reality. We are crying to God day and night to do something. On Saturday, Agnes held a meeting with the local administrators; the chiefs e.t.c because we want to organize a peace workshop in Kibera and its important for us to work together with the local arm of the government who are the local administrators.... The local administration always keeps daily data e.g if an area is burnt down, how many houses were burnt down, who was the occupants’ e.t.c. ... In the process of our discussion with them, we realized that nobody has reached out to the disabled with food and beddings. There are so many disabled people in Kibera who were affected and they are already disadvantaged compared to everybody else. Therefore, we decided that we will include most of them in our coming foodstuffs distribution..."

On the 1st and 2nd Feb 2008 1200kg of maize flour, 200kg of rice, 270kg of beans, 9 cartons of cooking fat and 9 cartons of soap was distributed to 49 disabled people and another 161 families. Each got three packets (a2kg) of maize flour, 2 kg beans, 1 ½ kg rice, 500gm cooking oil, a bar of soap and a packet of salt.

"One of the greatest challenges, we have been encountering in our reach out mission is in the mobilization of the real victims, for you to identify the real affected people, because we have so many opportunists who take advantage of relief food, you have got to go to the ground and find the real victims yourself. Most of them are not on phone and you have to go and inform them in person that they come for food. This is a risky exercise... on 1st Feb, one of our teachers was insulted and harmed physically in the mobilization process."

In total from 20th January to 2nd Feb, Drug Fighters has reached out and served 356 families fully supported by Liana.

100,000 Ksh was sent to Drug Fighters on the 6th and 7th of February. Food was distributed again on the 8th of February. More than 250 people gathered in the Mbagathi District Hospital grounds waiting for food.

Unimix porridge flour for children: 275kg, Beans: 270kg, Rice: 200kg, Maize flour: 1200kg, Cooking oil: 240 jars of 500g, Soap: 75 long bars of 700g.

This food fed a group of 223 families. Among the two hundred and twenty three families fed, forty three were disabled, forty five were our parents (of the affected children from our rescue and rehabilitation centre) and the rest were community members from the different villages and ethnic communities in Kibera.

In our field visit, we met this family whose house and everything was burnt down, the children are young and in school and their uniforms were burnt down. We visited where the family is being hosted by a friend in their one-room house. As agreed by Eija and Agnes, we used 4000Ksh to purchase their uniforms to enable them resume school as they wait for their parents to settle down. The children resumed school and they are truly grateful.

There was a huge crisis in Kibera of tribal segregation. Literally, there were areas that certain ethnic communities were not supposed to cross. When Drug Fighters sat down with the local administrators to discuss the way forward to silencing this tribal segregation, a peace workshop was proposed as an avenue to bring together difference tribes. The workshop was held on the 16th of February 2008. It had a hundred participants representing all the villages of Kibera and all the ethnic tribes. The workshop was also well represented in terms of age groups; we had youths, middle aged and elderly people. The discussion was fruitful because the tribal boundaries that had been set during the political unrest have been broken. Safaricom graced the workshop by donating printed T-shirts with messages promoting unity."

A big thank you to the implementers and to the individual and corporate donors!