Downtown Neighborhood Association, Response to Covid-19 in Kenya & Art for Social Justice -Jericho Brown, Bullet Points
Downtown Neighborhood Association
by Stacey Mitchell, Intern Minister
First Unitarian Church and our Committee on Hunger and Homelessnes (COHHO) has been collaborating with the Downtown Neighborhood Association to address the housing crisis. Following a symposium the church sponsored in 2019 organized by the Downtown Neighborhood Association, a coalition of groups have come together to form the Good Neighbor Project (GNP). Members of COHHO have joined the volunteer efforts of the GNP. Other coalition members include City Central Concern, Clay Street Table, and Meals on Wheels.
Volunteer teams connect with people living on the streets at least twice per month. Do they have enough food? Do they have enough blankets? Are they ill? Coalition members respond to the best of their abilities to address the specific concerns of our houseless neighbors.
Sharing coffee and conversation with our unhoused neighbors is critical to forging relationships of trust. Our First Unitarian volunteers have focused on getting to know the people living on or adjacent to the church block. Through these conversations, we learned that two people died on the church block in late December. We also have learned of a young child living with their family on our block.
In mid-January, the Good Neighbor Project hosted a memorial for Louie, who has lived in downtown Portland for 30 years. In that time, Louie made many dear friends, including those living on and around our block, who miss him very much. The interfaith memorial service organized by Intern Minister Stacey Mitchell was a sacred time to pause, grieve the loss of a precious friend, and acknowledge the human connections.
The Good Neighbor Project continues to learn about what it means to offer dignity, connection, value, and compassion to everyone, including the most vulnerable in our communities, especially our unhoused neighbors.
Watch this news clip to learn about the Good Neighbor Project and church member David Dickson, who has been a driving force for this volunteer effort.
Response to Covid19 in Kenya
by Mary Ann McCammon, Africa Connections Social Justice Action Group
Africa Connections incorporates the UU principles in its mission to engage the congregation of First Unitarian Church to build a beloved global community. We support the frontline work of congregant-led community organizations in Africa and recognize their work as related to the movement for Black lives.
Two nonprofit organizations, The Imani Project and Quilts for Empowerment, have been providing frontline work, on the ground in Kenya, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. They work to provide public health education, access to hand sanitation, food, healthcare, and business training; and, in the process, they have helped to save lives.
Millions were projected to die in Africa due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Kenya was one of the first countries to close its borders and schools in March 2020. It only re-opened to airplane travel in August 2020. The country recently reported 100,000 cases and 1,744 deaths. It is acknowledged that limited testing and unreported COVID-19 deaths in remote villages make this an underestimate. However, in a country of over 50 million people with fewer than 500 ICU beds, it is a remarkable achievement.
Some of the success is attributed to a nearly continuous nighttime curfew, alcohol restrictions, mandatory masking, within-country travel restrictions, a younger population, and warmer temperatures that make living and working outside feasible.
Schools partially re-opened in September and fully opened in January 2021. Currently, markets are open, in-country travel is unrestricted, and life is “back to normal” except for mandatory masking.
It is not clear how long it will take for COVID-19 vaccines to reach countries on the 54-nation continent without the resources to strike their own agreements. It is estimated it will take two to three years to vaccinate 60% of the continent’s 1.3 billion people. Kenya is expecting 24 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and has prioritized health workers, teachers, and security and immigration personnel. Kenya aims to vaccinate 1.25 million by June 2021 and 16 million by June 2022.
Life is not completely back to normal for the people in our two programs. Jobs are scarce, and access to income is essentially nonexistent. Thanks to recent good harvests, food is available, although prices remain high. School closures have resulted in a spike in teenage pregnancies and early marriages. Girls are being trafficked for sex and drugs as families spiral deeper into poverty.
Here is how each of our programs has responded and continues to respond to the crisis.
The Imani Project
The Imani Project, a collaboration between people in the United States and Kenya to combat HIV/AIDS and improve health conditions in rural Kenya, has supported COVID-19 education, awareness, and preparedness. These efforts are centered in the village of Masheheni but include coastal villages as far as 40 kilometers away. Many residents along the coast held menial jobs working at hotels, restaurants, or resorts – all of these jobs were lost. This led to major food insecurity for many people, with any available food very expensive. The government has not conducted COVID-19 testing in these rural communities, where masking is required. Although there have been deaths in the communities, it is unclear if these were a result of the virus or of other severe lung conditions due to cooking inside with charcoal.
The Imani Project responded early by establishing Portable Hand Washing Stations. These were custom-made 25-litre Jerry Cans fitted with a spigot. COVID-19 precautions were painted on both sides in Kiswahili and English. Soap was initially supplied by the government and continues to be available in district dispensaries. They are refilled with local river water.
In addition, Imani Project seamstresses sewed hundreds of masks for distribution to HIV+ community members, the elderly, and the disabled and sponsored HIV/AIDS orphans. Recently, families were given maize flour and dried fish to keep from starving. Project volunteers are planning to offer COVID-19 education and awareness in primary schools as the government does not provide it.
The economic ramifications of the pandemic continue to affect the wellbeing of many community members. There is massive unemployment and food insecurity is an ongoing issue, as food prices are very high and the harvests are greatly affected by climate change.
Quilts for Empowerment (QFE)
Quilts for Empowerment’s mission is to empower impoverished women and girls in Kenya, including, but not limited to, fistula survivors and sexual assault survivors. When travel restrictions made it impossible for the obstetric fistula survivors with whom we work to travel for sewing jobs essential for their income, QFE began paying each woman a $50/month stipend. It was primarily used to buy food for the 70 household members of the QFE women. Children and other relatives flocked to QFE women’s homes because the women now had some critical resources they lacked. QFE paid for another year of National Health Insurance for every household, a life saving measure.
Early on, all of the women’s individual small businesses were struggling, as no one had money to buy their vegetables, charcoal, and chickens. In August, women took soap-making classes both for home use and to sell, which has been profitable. Our two seamstresses made masks for women to wear and distribute and began supplying schools with masks. Fortunately, the women’s small businesses have recently picked up. The need to continue monthly stipends for food assistance will be individually determined.
The women’s monthly support group meetings have resumed in 2021, with reinforcement of financial training, support to grow their businesses, public health measures, and expert advice on animal husbandry and crop management.
The pandemic has meant increased sexual exploitation of girls by long-haul truckers who stop for sex and drugs. In response, QFE is starting a local school-based program aimed at keeping girls in school and healthy and preventingq human trafficking. QFE is also expanding their capacity to house assault survivors by launching a capital campaign to build a Girl’s Home to empower more girls. Construction has begun on the home infrastructure, a much needed source of jobs and income.
Art for Social Justice
The Speaking of Justice Editorial Team offers weekly art to deepen our connection to the work for social justice and building the Beloved Community.
Jericho Brown – Bullet Points