Safaricom schemes reach 4 million Kenyans
NAIROBI, (CAJ News) – MOBILE network operator, Safaricom, has reached more than 4 million Kenyans through programmes aimed at alleviating poverty,extending education to nomadic communities, increasing access to maternal health care and improving access to clean water in Kenya.
Speaking during the Safaricom Foundation and MPESA Foundation partners’ forum held in Nairobi, Safaricom CEO, Bob Collymore, says the extensive reach has been attained through partnerships with more than 1 000 organisations over a span of 13 years.
The partners include several county governments, and non-governmental organsiations such as PharmAccess, Amref, Action Aid, the Aga Khan Foundation, Huru, Meru School for the Mentally Handicapped, Women Challenged to challenge among others.
“Whenever the word development is mentioned it conjures different images in the mind of the listener. And for the people who benefit thorough our partnerships, development means supporting them improve their lives at the micro level, where it matters most to them and the communities they live in,” says Collymore.
“It means improving their livelihoods by providing clean water and health facilities, alleviating hunger and poverty and giving them a means of regaining their dignity and in some instances their self-esteem.”
The Partners’ Forum brought together various organizations that collaborate with the Safaricom and M-PESA foundations to positively impact the lives of those in the community through various projects.
Safaricom Foundation chairman, Joseph Ogutu, believes when Kenyans have both the ability to succeed and advance economically and the power to make and act on economic decisions that lift them out of poverty, their lives will be positively transformed.
– CAJ News
