WE REMEMBER
​We know many Kenyans are affected by COVID-19. We wish all those who are undergoing treatment, speedy recovery, and offer encouragement and support to those who are caring for sick loved ones. We also remember all those who have lost their lives to COVID19. Our thoughts are with the families and friends at this difficult time. 

Dr. Brenda Osieyo - GP

Experiences of a GP

Brenda Osieyo, a young Kenyan doctor, completed her GP training in August 2019 and successfully joined a Practice in Whitstable to serve the community as a general practitioner.

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I asked Brenda what the experience has been like for her, as a young professional in the frontlines. “The pandemic dramatically changed how we work. We found ourselves in the frontline as primary care givers and learning a lot on our feet. Other diseases have robust evidence-based guidelines, experts and strong knowledge base. But COVID-19 is novel to all. It has been a constant learning curve. We are all learning and have to work through it together”. In anticipation of the rise in number of patients with COVID-19, the practice adapted its working model to focus on providing care for those with possible COVID. To achieve this, it temporarily suspended non-essential services both at the practice as well as hospital level, and introduced multiple points to screen patients. The service was also reorganised to hot and cold sites to enable access of care for those with other illnesses and long term conditions who needed face-to-face appointments whilst minimising infection transmission. Brenda and her colleagues also had to quickly adapt to an accelerated digitalisation of healthcare which now includes video and online consultation. For Brenda, the experience has been far from anything she was ever taught or experienced in the past. In addition to the new way of providing care, there were issues such as navigating how to work with limited PPE, dealing with psychological aspects including coping with anxiety associated with frontline work, risk to own health (and family). This experience has brought with it a sense of greater responsibility, as Brenda and her colleagues learned to make choices with regards to safe and equitable delivery of services, kept abreast of the guidance that was regularly provided by PHE, WHO and the government. In spite the challenges and the toll from this experience, Brenda is motivated to continue because of the invaluable skills that she has, which she can use to contribute in a direct and beneficial way to the community, both in this pandemic and beyond – “It is hard work, but it is rewarding and worthwhile”. She is certain that she will come out of this much stronger. She has learned to be more flexible and adaptable to keep up with the fluid situation. She believes this experience will influence how medicine transforms in the future.

Shree Kutch Satsang Swaminarayan Temple in London

Forefront Leading the Effort

Shree Kutch Satsang Swaminarayan Temple in London, has been at the forefront in the effort to support local communities during the pandemic.

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Volunteers play an essential role, and have been in the forefront during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many individuals and communities have come out to volunteer their time and resources at this critical time. Whether it is providing support to the elderly and other vulnerable people through regular phone calls, shopping or collecting medicines, preparing and distributing food to the NHS and other, or supporting in other ways, all play a vital role. Shree Kutch Satsang Swaminarayan Temple in London, is committed to ensuring that the right help reaches those who need it the most. The Temple, which was established more than 50 years ago in the UK, has helped many people from different communities, both in the country and globally, over the years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Temple has been in the forefront of leading efforts to gather and distribute essential food supplies to those in need. The Temple and community mobilized and received a huge and positive response from well-wishers who give of their time, goods, services and other donations towards the cause. Working with a pool of generous an dedicated volunteers, the Temple has been able to support other organisations and community centres locally, by providing volunteers and resources; responded to requests from hospitals, key workers, the vulnerable and elderly; delivered medication supplies to patients on behalf of pharmacies and provided support for households through a phone call service. We are grateful to the Temple and all others who are volunteering their time and resources during these trying times.

Gloria - Student Nurse

A Student Experience

Gloria had just started her placement when the pandemic broke out

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Dr Sunil Bhudia - Cardiologist

"The Heartbeart of our Nation"

Dr Sunil Bhudia is a Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust.

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The Harefield Hospital is one of the 2 designated centres in London for the Covid 19. Dr Bhudia and his team have been admitting high risk patients with COVID-19 infection as well as proving urgent and emergency cardiac surgery. We applaud the important work carried out by Dr Sunil and his colleagues during these unprecedented times

Monica Gakuo - Specialist CPH Nurse

Skilled Response

Monica Gakuo, a specialist public health nurse adapted her skills to serve in the most effective way during the pandemic..

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Almost 8 weeks have passed since the Prime Minister announced the lockdown to minimize the spread of the coronavirus during this unprecedented pandemic. For many, this has meant working from home, usually with many challenges and having to quickly change the way we do things. Monica Gakuo is a specialist community public health nurse and works in schools in Ealing as a safeguarding specialist, focusing on child protection, health promotion and education among school children ages 5 – 19 years. The lockdown has meant that Monica cannot go to the schools and meet her clients in the usual way. Like many, she has had to work from home. This arrangement has resulted in many anxious parents calling regarding symptoms of their children with long term conditions, who are managed in the community. This has totally changed the way she works and she has had to quickly adopt to new ways of doing things. Her usual face to face interactions and contacts with the families are now virtual and limiting in many ways. During this trying period, Monica has seen a notable increase in new cases and a deterioration of some, which she attributes to the limited interactions with her clients. In one case, a parent with an autistic child shared with her how they were depressed and sleepless they were, as they now have to support their child 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Although schools remained open for such families, it has not always been easy to attend because of other challenges. For many of these families, Monica is the glue, providing much needed support and guidance. We applaud Monica, and appreciate the amazing contribution she has been able to make for many families in the constricts of her home during this pandemic and lockdown. As the lockdown eases and more of these children are able to go back to school, Monica can continue providing the much needed support in person.

Tamu Tamu - Kenyan Restuarant

Tamu Tamu, a vegetarian catering company, with a Kenyan twist has been, in true Kenyan spirit supporting our front line heroes since the lock down by preparing and distributing over 25,000 meal boxes.

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Volunteers play an essential role, and have been in the forefront during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many individuals and communities have come out to volunteer their time and resources at this critical time. Whether it is providing support to the elderly and other vulnerable people through regular phone calls, shopping or collecting medicines, preparing and distributing food to the NHS and other, or supporting in other ways, all play a vital role. Mr Dipesh Shah a fellow Kenyan from Eldoret and owner of Tamu Tamu, a vegetarian catering company, with a Kenyan twist based on Mollison way, Edgware has been, in true Kenyan spirit supporting our front line heroes since the lock down by preparing and distributing over 25,000 meal boxes to hospital staff, fire stations staff, ambulance staff, and other s across London. We applaud the serving spirit of the team at Tamu Tamu.

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Abubakar Mariam - Community Outreach

Community Heroes

Supporting get the message on how to stop the spread COVID-19 to 1000's of the hard to reach population of street boys and girls and slum dwellers of Nairobi.

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The first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Kenya on 13th March 2020. On 25th March 2020, the Government of Kenya declared a national lockdown and instituted a range of measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus, including isolating and treating confirmed cases, contact tracing and quarantine of individuals who have been in contact with COVID-19 cases. The government also instituted a dusk to dawn curfew in Nairobi and Mombasa. The public has been made aware of the preventive measures for COVID-19 such as social distancing measures and good hygiene practices, including handwashing with soap and water. It is now mandatory to wear facemasks in public places in Kenya. Lockdown measures are difficult to effectively carry out in any large city. This is even more so in some of the most densely populated areas of Nairobi, such as Majengo and Kibera where not only is it challenging to maintain social distance but also difficult to find running water for handwashing. COVID-19 is a global pandemic and the impact is being felt across the globe, from London to Nairobi. This is where Abubakar and Dennis Mariam, founders of AC19 come in. The two Kenyans, with support from TPN, under the leadership of Sophie Gitiba, are using innovative approaches to reach the residents of Majengo and other Nairobi slum dwellers, with information, personal protective equipment, including face masks, face shields and handwashing services!!!! Using a boda boda, these young men have been reaching at least 1000 people every day with essential masks, face shields, COVID-19 education and handwashing services. Through a successful funds drive by TPN, the brothers have now expanded their team after acquiring a new boda boda and are reaching 2000 people daily. Together we can slow down COVID-19. Together we can stop COVID19. One boda boda at a time!!!!! .

​Dr Daksha Hirani - Clinical Psychologist

Supporting with ‘Psychological PPE’

Volunteering at the Nightingale NHS, Dr. Hirani has used her knowledge to support frontline workers with "Psychological PPE" skills.

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Born in Kenya, Dr Hirani has committed to giving back to the country that brought her up. She and others run the education charity, Raha International, which supports the provision of education in Kenya as her way of giving back. In her own words - “Kenya has always been close to my heart and I am thankful for the platform it provided me to venture out into the diaspora”.​For Dr Hirani, COVID-19 is very real as she contracted the illness early on and recovered. She says: “It felt like a flu from hell sapping all the energy out of you whilst giving you aches and pains like a steamroller was repeatedly going over you”. After full recovery and self-isolating for 14 days, she decided to volunteer her services to the newly opened NHS Nightingale Hospital in London. The NHS Nightingale Hospital is effectively the largest ICU ward in the world which needs 16,000 key workers to keep the 4,000-bed unit running effectively.​Dr Hirani provides new staff with ‘Psychological PPE’ skills. Much in the same way that they are taught to don and doff their PPE safely, she teaches the staff to look after their own mental health and wellbeing and to look out for staff who are not coping and offer them psychological support. In the future, as the hospital admits more patients, she expects to offer support to families with compassionate care as they suffer great losses at this unprecedented time. Dr Hirani reminds us that COVID-19 is going to bring a significant rise in people experiencing anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, complicated grief and bereavement to name a few. Her hope is to help in any way to mitigate this suffering - “then my volunteering efforts will have been worthwhile”.

Irene Waroma - Family Support Manager

Frontline Support for Families

Irene Waroma is a support worker in Coventry working with people with autism. For Irene and her colleagues, the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown has changed a lot of things in her field. .

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Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic we continue to acknowledge and applaud our frontline workers – the health workers, those who keep our transport running, the supermarket workers and many others. You may not have read much about them, or thought of them as you applauded our frontline workers, but support workers are very much in the frontline and providing much needed care and support to vulnerable members of the society.Support work requires dedication and commitment to the client. Irene sees her role as providing the critical care and support to enable these vulnerable people in the society to stay in their homes. Through many years, a support worker is able to develop the trust and confidence of their client. It is this trust and confidence that Irene and her colleagues are working to maintain and sustain even during these difficult times. It means developing new routines for the clients as it is no longer possible to do the normal things. Instead of the usual walks to the parks, or shopping together, time is now only spent in the gardens, avoiding all unnecessary journeys, and visits from family members is totally restricted. The main aim is to ensure continuity and consistency for the client whose families have entrusted them to. As she and her colleagues work in close proximity to their clients and cannot adorn the full PPE as health providers do, Irene and other support workers are using new guidance to minimize the risk of infection for themselves and the client. This includes assigning the client one support worker where possible, or limiting the number of support workers for the client. The support workers themselves also keep to one client and as much as possible limit their involvement with other clients. Maintaining high standards of hygiene is very important in providing care during these times. Irene always wears gloves and also supports the client to wash their frequently wash or sanitize their and keep all surfaces clean and sanitized. How is Irene coping with all these changes? She admits that she worries about the risk of infecting the clients or infecting others due to exposure at work, while travelling to and from work or shopping. She also worries because she has an underlying health condition. Still she gets up every morning because she knows how important her work is for these vulnerable people and their families.​These are our heroes!!!! Irene Waroma and all support workers are our heroes!!! We applaud you!!!.

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Euroken Ltd  - Timber and  Builders merchants

Serving the Community

Vinod and Kalpesh Halai of Euroken Supplies have donated their time, workforce, equipment and their premises in Willesden to the community. .

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Euroken Supplies, a family owned business has been running since 2004 as an independent timber and builders' merchant under the leadership of the two brothers from Mombasa. The shock of the lockdown that affected all businesses including Euroken, did not deter the generosity of these Kenyans from shining through. The venue is as busy as ever, with forklifts moving up and down to unload tonnes of fruits and vegetables from the lorries into the warehouse. The warehouse is equally buzzing with activities as the foodstuff is sorted out by volunteers from the Willesden temple where the donations have come from. The carpark is filled cars and people from charities across London loading foodstuffs into their vehicles. We thank and applaud Euroken Supplies for the great Kenyan spirit they have shown.

Willesden Temple 

Community Heroes

18 tonnes of fresh fruits and vegetables is the amount of donations that Nairobi raised Willesden Temple Chairman Kurji Kerai is leading in coordinating.

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Born in Kenya, Dr Hirani has committed to giving back to the country that brought her up. She and others run the education charity, Raha International, which supports the provision of education in Kenya as her way of giving back. In her own words - “Kenya has always been close to my heart and I am thankful for the platform it provided me to venture out into the diaspora”.​For Dr Hirani, COVID-19 is very real as she contracted the illness early on and recovered. She says: “It felt like a flu from hell sapping all the energy out of you whilst giving you aches and pains like a steamroller was repeatedly going over you”. After full recovery and self-isolating for 14 days, she decided to volunteer her services to the newly opened NHS Nightingale Hospital in London. The NHS Nightingale Hospital is effectively the largest ICU ward in the world which needs 16,000 key workers to keep the 4,000-bed unit running effectively.​Dr Hirani provides new staff with ‘Psychological PPE’ skills. Much in the same way that they are taught to don and doff their PPE safely, she teaches the staff to look after their own mental health and wellbeing and to look out for staff who are not coping and offer them psychological support. In the future, as the hospital admits more patients, she expects to offer support to families with compassionate care as they suffer great losses at this unprecedented time. Dr Hirani reminds us that COVID-19 is going to bring a significant rise in people experiencing anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, complicated grief and bereavement to name a few. Her hope is to help in any way to mitigate this suffering - “then my volunteering efforts will have been worthwhile”.

Nisha Bhudia  & Anjina Patel - Pharmacists

Volunteering at Nightingale

The two sisters from Kenya, Nisha Bhudia, who is volunteering as a Critical Care Pharmacist and Anjina Patel volunteering as a support pharmacist at the Nightingale NHS London, are among those who are courageously offering their skills in the frontline fight against COVID-19..

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The Nightingale NHS, London opened on 3 April 2020 as a temporary hospital set up by NHS England to add extra critical care capacity during the COVID-19 epidemic in the UK, and to treat those with COVID-19. It is housed in the ExCeL London convention centre in East London, with potential capacity for 4,000 patients. Nisha Bhudia is ordinarily a critical care pharmacist at Hereford Hospital and Anjina Patel a pre-op assessment pharmacist at Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. These two sisters have stepped out to provide the much needed support at Nightingale, which they also see as a learning opportunity and an inspiration to their colleagues and families. We applaud the two and the many Kenyan healthcare workers in the frontline in the war against COVID-19.

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Dr Walter Owino - Former Medical Director

NorthWales NHS

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In the Frontline Saving Lives

Dr. Walter Owino, a retired Consultant Psychiatrist with the NHS, stepped out to volunteer his services as soon as the pandemic started.

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e is currently working in a small hospital in North Wales where he is providing much needed medical care and addressing the mental health impact of the pandemic on the community and health workers. In his own words, 'I feel lucky and privileged to be able to continue in a small way, to make a contribution, in the frontline of the fight against this devastating virus.' Walter exemplifies dedication and commitment. After many years of services, Dr. Owino seeks to continue giving back to the community.To him and all other Kenyans who form part of the frontline work, we are truly grateful.

Costa Gitibah - Senior Nurse

In the Frontline Saving Lives

Costa Gitiba, a senior registered nurse trained in the UK and has worked in the sector for 15 years.

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Costa shared an urgent appeal for people to volunteer as a Bedside Buddy. As a nurse in the wards, he has seen his patient load increase from 4 COVID 19 patients to 8, and can't stress enough how volunteering would ease the burden on the health care workers in addition to offering companionship to the patients. Costa exemplifies commitment and dedication, that we are also seeing from many other Kenyans who continue to be in the forefront during theses trying times. To them, we are truly grateful.

Rahul Vekaria - Entrepreneur

Supporting the Frontline

Rahul Vekaria Story: There were multiple posts on social media and a video on the news which showed a nurse in tears, having worked a long shift was not able to buy anything.

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I circulated this with colleagues and family members and we all felt concerned about the situation. We wanted to do something for the staff working in the NHS, who are working hard to save lives. To be honest we had multiple ideas thrown from a wide range of us. The benefits we had was that we had a family restaurant and a fruit and veg store. I spoke to a family friend who worked for NHS and asked her whats the best way to approach this matter. She allocated us to provide meals for those staff working night shifts. We provided 100 packed meals with fruit on a daily basis. We got a dedicated team to get together to pack the food and 2 of us went to drop this off to the hospital. For us it was an opportunity to give back to the staff who are working so hard to look after everyone and we are grateful for the NHS and all the critical workers working hard during this overwhelming time.

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