Delivering Covid response to Turkana County

Facing the dual challenge of hunger and Corona, Turkana County residents are a vulnerable lot during this pandemic period. Coupled with the vastness of their county that is largely semi-arid, sparsely populated and home to two major refugee and IDP camps that also borders Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia, Covid interventions need to be beefed up.

To ease the impending pressure, a partnership on improving water access for pastoralist communities in Turkana has been launched by NBCC coalition partner Practical Action and the Grundfos Foundation (Poul Due Jensen Foundation). The project that has been ongoing fora year aims at improving access to drinking water for 72,000 of Kenya’s most marginalized people.

Cognizant of the importance of hygiene in helping control the spread of the pandemic, Practical Action and the Foundation reinforced their improved access to water initiatives with availing of cleaning supplies to ensure Turukana residents keep themselves safe from the Coronavirus. The interventions delivered include installation of solar-powered water pumps to increase access to water for hand washing, soap, water storage containers, health and sanitation kits and hand washing stations distributed to the vulnerable in 12 communities spread over two constituencies.

To complement these effortsin line with the NBCC mandate to champion behaviour change, Practical Action and its partners will also broadcast coronavirus and hygiene messaging to approximately 5,000 households through local radio, television, mobile phone messages and community noticeboards. This work will be strengthened by working with 200 community health volunteers, local government and area chiefs to reach local communities.

#KomeshaCorona #BizFightsCorona

For more information : https://practicalaction.org/news-media/2020/06/02/practical-action-and-grundfos-foundation-launch-coronavirus-response/