By Kelvin Kiprop
Humanitarian activities in the North Rift Region are set to be enhanced after the Kenya Red Cross Society received a Ksh75 million grant from one of its partners.
According to the society’s North Rift chairman Francis Maiyo, they received the funding from the International Federation of the Red Cross under an umbrella of National Society Acceleratory Program.
The grant will go into supporting the sustainability of the Kenya Red Cross Society projects in the region.
“The grant will be used in expansion of branding and textile industry in the region which will be an income generating project that is meant to support the sustainability of the organization,” Maiyo told journalists.
He spoke on Friday at Boma Inn Hotel, also owned by the Kenya Red Cross Society, during the Annual General Meeting for the region.
Humanitarian activities
During the meeting, the management and accountability of the activities were explained to the members.
On her part, Kenya Red Cross North Rift Manager Esther Chee said they have been able to reach out to thousands of locals through their various humanitarian activities.
She revealed that for the last 12 months, they have offered support to at least 140,000 people in drought areas while over 100,000 people have benefited from nutrition intervention.
Further, they have reached over 670,000 youths and others indirectly through the Community Based Program.
“We have come from recovering from one disaster to the other and we want to serve the communities better by training people in preparedness of floods and drought,” Chege said.
She also noted that the Kenya Red Cross through their capacity building initiatives have been able to reach communities by focusing on early warnings system, which has been instrumental in mitigating disasters.
The Kenya Red Cross was established in 1065 through an Act of Parliament.
It supports and runs a number of projects whilst raising awareness to the Kenyan public about the current issues or problems which may affect them.
Some of the projects which are either run by or assisted by the Kenya Red Cross are Famine, blood services, first aid projects, disaster and emergency services and education services.
Governors are the patrons of the Kenya Red Cross in their respective counties with the President being the overall patron nationally.
