Kenya

Simbisa Brands Kenya Limited partnered with Abha Light Foundation on a CHILDREN’S HEALTH CARE INITIATIVE PROGRAMME (CHCI) from November 2017 to March 2018. We co-branded with them on the donation tins and placed them on all our counters to raise funds to help Abha Light Foundation increase their Spirullina production to get more beneficiaries.
Abha Light Foundation grow spirulina at their owned aquafarm in the village of Kambimawe, Makueni County. At Kambimawe, ALF has the largest natural medicine clinic.
The farm grows approximately 150 kg a year. That’s about 2,600 60g packets that were distributed in 2017 through the Free Children’s Clinics project which conducts free clinics at 22 venues throughout Kenya.
Having seen the benefits of spirulina at their Free Children’s Clinics, they started to distribute it to vulnerable children in drought stricken or impoverished areas. Currently 195 children are receiving spirulina regularly. They look to expand these services. While they acknowledge that spirulina alone cannot solve outright the starvation in the drought areas, they have found that spirulina supplementation is effective in boosting the nutrition and immunity of children. They continue distributing spirulina to vulnerable, malnourished children from very desperate families facing severe food insecurity.
Approximately 195 children are currently benefiting from spirulina distribution. Each child gets a 100 g packet of spirulina monthly. They use it in their meals at home, approximately ½ teaspoon per child daily.

Beneficiaries’ Stories from the funds raised by Simbisa brands Kenya limited;

(1) Mr. and Mrs. John M, have 7 children, with the wife expecting. With the scarcity of food, feeding his family has been a challenge for John. Over the past years children have had stunted growth. Since they started supplementing their food with the spirulina, they have never stopped. "Spirulina has been very useful to our family", says John. "My children have added weight; their skin texture has improved. My wife who is now expecting loves spirulina. It has been an appetizer to her. We are very grateful to Abha Light and AMURTEL for this support."

(2) Lilian N, a grandmother of 4 children, enjoys eating spirulina with her grandchildren. As I visited they had prepared a meal of beans which they mix with spirulina and enjoy together.

Simbisa Brands Kenya Limited visited Good Shepherd’s Children’s Home which houses over 50 children with special needs. The team fed the children, cleaned the children and the institution and played with the children. They were very blessed to have our team on that day.

Simbisa Brands Kenya Limited offered great support in the planning for this years’ Mater heart run that is organized by Mater Hospital. We offered the hospital an in-kind partnership of about Kshs 500,000 and allowed them to sell their t-shirts in our outlets to raise funds for the walk.
The run is purely to support kids with heart diseases. Over the years, Mater Heart Run has managed to get three cardiac missions with 134 heart surgeries and 206 catheterization procedures done by their local doctors and their partners outside of Kenya. They were also able to hold eight free cardiac outreach camps in various counties through which 14,937 children benefited from free Rheumatic Heart disease screening and health education.