Covid-19 pandemic came with confusion, uncertainty and hardships to many Kenyans, and especially to vulnerable families.
A spirit of charity swept through the nation as those able to sought to help and save the lives of others.
Helping Hands is one of the organisations formed during the pandemic to feed vulnerable families.
Mother of six Kadzo Mangale, 29, is one of the beneficiaries of the group. She said her three children are living with disabilities, while the other three stay home to look after their siblings instead of going to school.
Mangale, who gave birth to her now 14-year-old firstborn daughter at the age of 17, says her life has been difficult, especially after being rejected by her family due to the condition of her three children, who are living with disabilities.
“When I gave birth to my first daughter, she did not have any complications, but my second born had a big head, and that was the beginning of my troubles,” Mangale said.
Her second born daughter used to cry a lot when she was three months old. Mangale took her to Makadara hospital, where she was referred to Kijabe hospital.
Pandemic heroes: From feeding two families to reaching 10,000 pic.twitter.com/yIamksmNSG
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Luckily enough, she got a well-wisher, who funded her transport to the hospital for the treatment of her daughter.
At Kijabe hospital, Mangale's daughter was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, a complication that showed she had water in her head, forcing the doctors to put tubes in her head to drain out the water.
“Today, my daughter is 12 years old and she has never walked or sat on her own, despite being told she will sit as time goes by,” Mangale said.
Apart from building structures and mosques and feeding people, we also provide sanitary towels to young girls and women
POVERTY AND REJECTION
Mangale, who has been living in poverty, said she could not afford cash to take her children for treatment.
“I did not take my child back for checkup due to lack of funds. The hospital had asked for Sh150,000 for her treatment, which I could not afford,” she said.
Mangale was thrown out by her husband after giving birth to a blind child, who is their third born. Her sixth born was also born blind.
The pain of her children made her feel so bad and rejected, at one point she thought of taking her own life because she could not bear it anymore and could not help her children.
“My husband, who had come back, took off again and until now, my children have never set their eyes on their father again,” Mangale said.
Her family believes she is a witch due to the condition of her three children and, therefore, no one wants to associate with her, apart from her mother, who understands the pain she is going through.
Mangale was surviving with the help of the well-wishers until when her story was aired on social media and the Helping Hands team came to her rescue.
“I am so grateful to the Helping Hands group. These people gave me hopes of believing in myself, seeing the value of life and having hopes for the future,’’ she said.
FROM FOOD TO HOUSES
The group started with the aim of distributing food to orphanages and vulnerable families, but due to their team work, they expanded their projects to building houses to those who did not have shelter.
Lawrence Mazera, 67, is also a beneficiary of the group. Mazera, who was living in a small hut with his 13 family members, his two daughters and 11 grandchildren, said life was a living hell, especially during rainy seasons.
“My house was in a very bad shape. I used to get in as a rat because it was small and during rainy seasons, we would wait for the rain to stop then we start pouring water outside before we could sleep on the cold floor,” he said.
Apart from building a two bedroom house for the family, which cost less than Sh100,000, Helping Hands has provided Mazera with a job opportunity of digging wells as a source of income, which helps him feed his grandchildren.
Mejuma Ndanda, Mazera's wife, said before meeting with Helping Hands, life was very tough for them.
“My family has never slept on a bed for the last 10 years but today, I am so happy to have a good sleep on a big bed thanks to the Helping Hands team,” Ndanda said.
Mohammed Kareem, co-founder and the chairperson of the team, said Helping Hands started seven months ago, when he and his friend Habib Hakim thought of helping the vulnerable during the Ramadhan period.
Kareem is a legal adviser and activist in the United Kingdom, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, he couldn’t go back to the UK. And now he says staying back has been a blessing to him because it has given him the opportunity to give back to society.
He said he started the group with his friend as volunteers. They used to feed people who were hit hard by Covid-19 and those who were on lockdown in Old Town.
“Our membership picked up through social media and we started getting donations from other people. We started by feeding two families and today, we have fed 10,000 families within the coastal region,” Kareem said.
The team came together to build the house for Mazera, which was their first mega project without any support from the corporate world, something which motivated and made them realise they can do better.
Mohammed was inspired by his late father who was a philanthropist, and he took the spirit of helping others from him.
“We have a group of 25 people who have the same vision of helping and feeding the vulnerable and orphanages, and they are also passionate about this,” Kareem said.
Despite the group growing fast, Kareem said they have been facing challenges. The main one is the nature of roads they use to reach needy families, which is so rough, thus giving them the additional expense of taking their vehicles for regular service.
Covid-19 regulations have also been limiting them in helping children.
LONG-TERM IMPACT
Ndanda said her two daughters did not go to school due to lack of school fees, and now what she wants for her grandchildren is to have a good education.
Likewise, Mangale said her three disabled children have talent. The first child has a talent for singing, the second one has a sharp memory despite being blind and grasps anything he hears, and the third child is a drummer.
“My plea is to take my children to school, especially my first born child, who has been helping me to take care of her siblings instead of going to school,” Mangale said.
She said Helping Hands moved her family from a small house to a bigger one and provided clothes and food to them.
Kareem said the organisation has a database and they are providing school requirements to the children, who will be taken back to school.
“We are restructuring ourselves and identifying what help do the families need, and now we are working on how the children can go back to school,” he said.
The group has also taken an initiative of restructuring the orphanages and building mosques.
In Mombasa, the number of street families has been increasing, despite the pandemic and strict measures set aside by the Health ministry.
Kareem said according to their count, the number of street families in Mombasa town has increased from 20 to 200 families, something that raises a concern to both private organisations and the county government.
“Helping street families is not a bad thing to do, but the more you give them food, the more you attract more to join the streets. Therefore, the only solution is to look for a long-term solution to rescue the children and take them to school,” he said.
He said the long-term structure should be done by the county and national governments because the logistics and the magnitude of the situation is huge, which cannot be done by the organisations.
“If the government teams up with us, I think we can do a better job together. My idea, which I see happening in other countries, is relocating them and teaching them how to get money and not giving them money,” Kareem said.
He said street families include young people who can be rehabilitated and detoxified from the habit of begging.
The activist said training youth after rehabilitation and opening up of businesses to the young mothers will be the only solution to end the phenomenon of street families.
MORE PROJECTS
Helping hands also started an initiative called Red Dot, whereby they provide hampers to young girls and women.
Salwah Mohammed, a board member of Helping Hands, said the hampers contain three packets of sanitary towels, panties, bathing soap, toothbrush and toothpaste.
“Apart from building structures and mosques and feeding people, we also have a Red Dot initiative, which is now on the move to include boys as beneficiaries, not just the girl child alone,” she said.
Most young girls, especially from vulnerable families, are scared and lack people to talk to and educate them on menses.
“Some girls have gone to the extent of using rags because they cannot afford the sanitary towels. We are doing all we can to ensure we provide them with their needs after every two months,” Salwah said.
She said the group targets to reach and help as many girls as possible. Kareem added the group is also giving legal help to families who have court cases.
“We have been taking legal actions and a good example is one girl who was knocked by a Takawal bus but she has not been compensated. We are helping the girl to get justice,” Kareem said.
Helping Hands has a vision of expanding their charity work to the 47 counties.
Edited by T Jalio
