A mere 2% of people living in Africa have been vaccinated against Covid-19 and only a handful (mainly foreign embassy staff) of those living in Tanzania. However, over the weekend Tanzania received one million doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine via the World Health Organisation’s COVAX programme. This is enormously welcome news but still means that less than 2% of the population will be fully protected against the virus once the jabs have been administered. (BBC News.)
The government has now begun to be open about the pandemic. President Hassan, pictured above, said earlier this month that, “The third wave is already in the country”. The Health Minister stated that there were 858 patients with Covid in hospital as of July 22, compared to 682 the day before. Our Village Manager’s uncle, a well-respected journalist, died of Covid recently, having been on a ventilator for some days.

What does this mean for Malaika Kids?

We already abide by all the rules the government has set out. Mask wearing in all public places, frequent hand washing and social distancing. We limit visitors from outside and keep journeys to Dar es Salaam, where the virus is rife, to an absolute minimum. Our children are young and healthy and are not at great risk. But we worry for some of our older staff and in particular for the carers of the children in our Relatives Support Programme, many of whom are grandmothers and most of whom live in Dar es Salaam. We have made sure that they understand the dangers of the infection and have provided them all with masks.
In the Children's Village, life is largely unaffected. At the beginning of July, the children returned to school after a month’s holiday; one of our mothers gave birth to a healthy baby boy, and two more orphaned children joined our Malaika Kids family. One older boy is getting ready to leave us to go to college in September.
We were delighted to receive letters from some of our younger children telling us, in excellent written English, about their trip to the zoo and the beach. And in a recent WhatsApp call we were able to see and talk to some of our mamas and children.
South Africa has the same population, 59 million, as Tanzania. According to a study recently published in the Lancet, 5 children in 1,000 in South Africa have lost a primary caregiver (a parent or custodial grandparent) to the virus. This amounts to nearly 100,000 children. If anything approaching this number occurs in Tanzania we will be facing a major tragedy and the need for organisations such as ours will never have been greater.

Want to help?

Please donate here and/or consider running for Malaika Kids in the Royal Parks Half Marathon in London on October 10th. Contact Martin Stoll at martin.stoll@malaika-kids.org and he will be delighted to provide you with all the details of the run.
With very best wishes and heartfelt thanks.
Alan Edwards Malaika Kids UK Chair

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