On 13th March 2020, Kenya declared its first Covid-19 positive patient and the government took various measure to protects the safety and security of its citizens which included securing medical supplies to medical institutions, border closing, nationwide curfew, locking down zones with high infection levels, stopping private and religious gatherings, and providing fiscal support to businesses and individuals. Dealing with the unknown pandemic became the new normal.
The Asian communities have always come together in crisis and this was no exception. As the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, the dynamics shifted and the country realized that real grassroots efforts would be needed to curb the spread and overflow for the medical facilities. The objective was to save lives regardless of class, caste or creed. The Asian Community through the Hindu Council for Kenya, Aga Khan Development Network and the various individual community structures and through the individual member’s personal businesses can out to provide support to the country and the Government in its efforts.
One of the issues that came up was individual communities need to be prepared and respond to the pandemic and what came out of this was an initiative led by Dr. Amit Thakker, Dr. Bimal Kantaria, Ashif Kassam, Kamal Gupta, Hassan Ole Nadoo, Zaheerabbas Khimji, Aradhana Trivedi and Zahra Rashid to set up a in Inter-Community Preparedness with the support of the Hindu Council, SUPKEM, Lohana and Ismaili Communities. The main objective was to share vital Covid-19 updates, medical measures, and toolkits to enable individual communities to prepare themselves for the COVID-19 journey. The first webinar was held on 25th April 2020 and between 2nd May 2020 and 16th May 2020 the initiative held two open webinars, seven zoom meetings, developed a Community Preparedness Blueprint (CBP) and shared various other resources with participants including experience sharing.
As a result and the success of the initiative many community leaders realized that there was no specific forum where community leadership of each of the Asian Community could come together and share information, exchange ideas, leverage of what each one was doing, and above all become a forum to integrate the efforts of each of the communities to reduce duplication and make an impact. The aim was to “Make a bigger purpose which will foster deeper community connection through collaboration and knowledge exchange”.
The 1st Strategy Workshop was held on 27th February 2021 at the Shree Lohana Mahajan Mandal, Nairobi and the attendees were Chair and Vice Chairs of the different Asian Communities. The invitation was extended to three umbrella bodies: Hindu Council of Kenya, Asian Foundation and Sikh Council Kenya. For the Government of Kenya representation, the invitation was extended to P.S. Kevit Desai. Also invited were certain experts from the community from the business sector, culture, historical and heritage.