On Saturday 18^th December 2021, Come Together Widows and Orphans Organization (CTWOO) in partnership with the Anti- FGM Board, Uwezo fund Samburu, Women enterprise Fund Samburu held an event at Ng`ari primary school grounds in Samburu County that involved food distribution among widows in the area.

The event was graced by Madam Dianah Kamande the CEO CTWOO, Bernedette Loloju CEO Anti-FGM board Kenya, Peter Lengapiani CEO Uwezo Fund Samburu, Dominic Lesimale Credit manager Women Enterprise Fund Samburu and Hon Joseph Loloju an aspirant MCA Maralal ward.

Their contribution towards this event made it a great success. Most people who attended the event were illiterate and therefore most of the speeches were done using local language and interpretation was done for those who used Kiswahili, to avoid distortion of the information.

Activities of The Day

Registration

Due to language barrier, we liaised with the people from the area who were the team leaders who helped us in registering the widows who had attended the event. We started registration immediately we arrived at the venue at around 12:30 p.m. registration of the widows was an ongoing activity even in the midst of the event.

Activities of the Event

The event started immediately after the arrival of all the expected guest. Dominic Lesimale who was the master of ceremony called the meeting in order by directing all the people who were present in their respective seating positions. The event was opened by a word of prayer by one of the residents.

The master of ceremony welcomed a team of widows who entertained the congregation as well as welcoming the guest who had graced that event. The entertainment helped the people to settle. Master of ceremony started by welcoming different guests to give out their speeches.

He started by welcoming the area chief Mr Tiko Lenturo who spoke to the people present. Bennedette Loloju the CEO Anti-FGM Board Kenya was the next to be welcomed. She started by welcoming all the people who were present as well as thanking the invited guests. In her speech, she impacted the people who were present with information concerning the Female Genital Mutilation as well as early child marriages.

Peter Lengapiani was the next to be welcomed. In his speech, he spoke of the Uwezo Fund that it`s a product that is set aside for the youths, women as well as the ones with disability. He emphasized that the Government of Kenya has already put aside funds under the Uwezo Fund for the Samburu people. He therefore said that whenever they require any amount of money it will be available for them.

After his speech, Madam Dianah was welcomed to give out her speech. The first thing she did was to thank Hon. Loloju for hosting that event as well every other guest who had graced the event as well all those who were present. Her speech was more on widows where she narrated her widowhood journey which encouraged the widows who were present. Before she could end, she welcomed Kenneth one of the workers at CTWOO to explain to the people who were present on how to cook the `Tender mercy ` Food; recipe of cooking porridge and rice.

Hon Loloju concluded the speeches by thanking everybody for availing themselves. He congratulated Madam Dianah for her great in helping the widows. He concluded the speech by requesting the Maralal ward residents to support him in the forth coming election next year.

Food Distribution

This was the final activity to be conducted. Each individual who was supplied with food hamper had to left the grounds to avoid commotion. Food hampers that were intended to be supplied to the widows were packed in bags where an individual got one each. Food distribution was facilitated by community team leaders to avoid commotion.

Each team leader was expected to have a certain number of widows who were supplied with food hampers. This activity took a bit long since the people who came in expecting food were many as compared to what was planned. The food that was supplied was contributed by Hon Joseph Loloju and Bennedette Loloju, Come Together Widows and Orphans Organization and Manna Ministries International.

Conclusion

We had planned to host widows whom we had planned to supply food hampers to. Unfortunately, the event had widows, widowers as well as members of the community who expected to benefit from that event. Vulnerability of the Maralal residents made so many people to turn up than expected.

We recorded 184 widows excluding others. Feeding program as usual is different from any other program undertaken for the well of the community. People turn up far than always expected. Even though so many people turned up, we managed to give each and every individual a share to take home for his or her family.

Because of the success of that event, we won’t forget to thank Hon Loloju, Bennedette Loloju, Manna Ministries International, Uwezo Fund, Women Enterprise Fund as well as Come Together Widows and Orphans Organization for making that event to succeed as well their great impacts to the Maralal residents.