Dorcas Aid International Extends Relief Operation in Kibera
C. Langejan-Candelin
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-"Dorcas Aid International will assist 2,500 households (15,000 persons) in Kibera during the extended operation that lasts 1 month. Each family is given maize flour, cooking oil and beans every week. The project also targets 1400 HIV positive people. We want to assist them so they can continue taking their medications. All these people have been identified and registered by local churches and by WOFAK (Women Fighting Against AIDS in Kenya). 2000 women and girls will also receive sanitary towels" says Edwin Onyancha, DAI Regional Director for East and South Africa.
-"The beneficiaries consist of families that have been displaced as a result of the violence. Most of the families have gathered with their relatives in safer sections of Kibera slums. In this way, they are able to organize for their protection and how to search for food as a group. They live in temporal structures which offer little protection from rain and cold. Some have been given temporal accommodation in exhibition halls within the Jamhuri Park" Onyancha continues.
In January 2008, Dorcas Aid International provided relief goods - such as food and non-food items - to 13,000 victims of the post-election violence in Kibera, Nairobi.
On the 27th December 2007, Kenya conducted an election whose results were disputed by the opposition thus bringing about post election violence. This has pitted communities that have hitherto co-existed to react violently against each other. So far over 1,000 people have lost lives and over 350,000 people have been displaced from their homes.
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