Kenya Extends Restrictions by Two Months Limits BnB Travel

COVID has put a strain on all our lives. We seem to be on the edge of a change where things are starting to slowly open up and soon we will be able to gather again and actually give people hugs as a greeting instead of an elbow bump or a wave. 

I don’t know about you but it’s been wearing on me lately with the rollout of the vaccine and the reduction in cases and deaths but getting conflicting information saying it’s going to be months before we are “allowed” to gather again. It depends what state you live in as to how open things are and other countries around the world are also going in different directions.

I had planned on booking my trip to Kenya for April to see the ladies. I have not been to Kenya since Feb 2020. I came back a couple weeks before the lock down happened here in the US and the last large order of products arrived a couple days before we locked down.

We were waiting to hear the decision of the President of Kenya before I booked my next trip. We were planning on April pending the outcome of the Presidents announcement on March 12^th.

Unfortunately, the restrictions have been extended another 2 months. Read the details here.

This is very discouraging for me as I miss the ladies and Leila our Director. It’s even more discouraging for them. There are no markets for them to set up and sell their beads. They also relied on the numerous groups that would regularly come to Kitale throughout the year.  They would sell beads to these groups but COVID put a stop to that.  We were also placing regular large orders for product as I would sell them when I was speaking, at pop up events and at our locations including online.  COVID caused us to close down 2 of those locations and there were no events any longer and although I am still speaking online, the sales haven't been the same as in person events.  

Some of our ladies have gone back to Lodwar where they are originally from to stay with family or friends. Lodwar is about 9 hours away from Kitale and where the Turkana tribe originates from. The struggles in Kitale in the Kipsongo slum are very intense. It’s a very small piece of land with many huts basically built so close that there’s not much room to move around and no ability to plant and there is violence and danger there. If you look at the first part of our about video you can see how the slum is built.

While schools opened for this year, the first semester is coming to a close. Thankfully with the help of the Temecula Rotary Club, we were able to provide school uniforms for 13 kids and supplies. This is 12 of them in their uniforms. Their donation also helped provide this round of food packs for March and helped with the shipping expense to ship clothes that we sent to the kids last month.

 

We are continuing our food pack program most likely into the summer. The purpose of the foodpack program is to supplement the ladies with food while they are unable to earn income. It will take some time after everything opens up to get back to sustainability so we plan to continue this part of the way into the reopening period.

We are grateful for the continued support of the people who have donated to help feed the ladies and their families. If you’d like to donate please go here .

If you'd like to support through product purchase, check out the online store here.