WHO Kenya will use KES 270 million (2,573,105 million euros) grant from the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations department (ECHO) to boost the Government of Kenya’s efforts to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
WHO Kenya will train frontline health workers at national and county levels and strengthen the COVID-19 rapid response and clinical teams across all Kenyan counties.
It will also be used to support risk communications and community engagement activities in identified as hot spots.
Strategies include airing of messages in local languages on radio stations, TV, digital and other information platforms, engaging community leaders and the public in order to change individual behaviour, and building the capacity of health workers as they support the community response to the pandemic.
Through the Ministry of Health, WHO is capitalizing on 21 community radio channels throughout the country to relay COVID-19 messages and conduct debates and discussions on the disease and its spread.
A recent survey by the Kenya Bureau of Standards found that 100% of the country’s population had heard of COVID-19 and the safety messages from the government and partners, with 82% of them hearing it on the radio.
Armed with these messages, Maasai elder Julius Oloiboni mobilized his semi-nomadic community to set up handwashing stations in their makeshift village, stop family members from interacting with each other, and stopped all movement out of the villages except for the cattle herdsmen.
In Kawangware informal settlement in the capital Nairobi, Judy Emeza and her three children stood in a long line for a COVID-19 test, having heard through the radio about a free mass testing campaign in her neighbourhood, while health promotion officer Beatrice Lugalia counters myths, allays fears and encourages testing through community visits and radio programmes.
Along Kenya’s long, porous boundary with other countries, remote communities are not hesitating to support the work of the public health authorities. For instance, people are calling to report family members who have crossed from Somalia on trade missions and have tested positive for COVID-19. Along the border with Tanzania, several communities prohibited cross-border movement among themselves before the government formally closed all borders.
The funding from the EU will allow additional technical personnel to be deployed to the counties to support training, rapid response, clinical and communications activities.
The grant comes at a critical time as the country is dealing with community transmission and needs urgent response measures to stop further spread
The current grant is part of 30 million euros that the EU has provided to the WHO in response to its Global Appeal to combat COVID-19 across the world, while EU Member States have already provided more than KES 3.3 billion (EUR 30 million).