Team Pankaj donates food in informal settlements

Amid the current health crisis, a major charitable effort to feed Nairobi’s most vulnerable people is underway. As business activity grinds to a halt, the informal sector and its workers, many of whom live in slums, are suffering disproportionately.

A group of dedicated volunteers, known as Team Pankaj, are fundraising to source dry goods, fresh vegetables, soap and other necessities and distributing them in ‘survival boxes’ to informal settlements throughout Nairobi. The organization is totally non-profit.

 Since the gradual lockdown of Nairobi began nearly three weeks ago, Team Pankaj has distributed 280,000 kg of food to Kibera, Huruma, Deep Sea, Murura, Korogocho, Mathare, and Otiende Estate.

 The effort is led by Pankaj Shah, a travel agency owner, his deputies and an army of volunteers, among them a Nairobi shop keeper, a physiotherapist, and a safari guide who have all closed shop to dedicate themselves to this logistics operation.

 Shah, a member of the Oshwal community in Nairobi, has a longstanding personal relationship with the Consolata organization. In 1989, he got into a minor car accident on the Mombasa Rd and damaged the other car, which happened to be carrying Mother Teresa, who was on her way to the airport. He gave her a ride to the airport and this sparked an invitation to Calcutta and a lifelong friendship.

Shah spent three and half months that year volunteering at Mother Teresa’s Home for disabled children in Calcutta where, he said, he learned the principle of humility. Later he adopted a daughter from one of Mother Teresa’s Homes in India. He brought her to Nairobi where she was raised, along with his biological children. His daughter now lives and studies acting in New York.

Pankaj Shah
Image: ALEXIS CALICE

 Three weeks ago, Shah visited Mother Teresa’s Home in Huruma. The Sister Superior there told him that "people are already very very hungry, they are suffering" and pleaded to him for help. The same day he organised one tonne of flour in one kg bags to be sent to Huruma. The next day he began raising funds from friends and relatives to buy large quantities of bread.

 As the Kenyan government implemented the curfew and closed businesses to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Shah realized that thousands would be out of work and a bigger effort to feed the most vulnerable was needed. He ordered 500 food hampers from a local supermarket chain, but found they couldn’t deliver the volume that was needed.

So he began fundraising and buying food directly from suppliers. He recruited volunteers to help him coordinate what is now a large logistics operation involving packing and transporting ‘survival boxes’ filled with essentials like flour, cooking fat, soap, sanitary pads and bags of fresh vegetables. He has partnered with the Jonathan Jackson Foundation, which supplies him with young community volunteers who help him deploy boxes of supplies throughout Nairobi’s slums.

A Team Pankaj volunteer in Deep Sea
Image: Alexis Calice

 Team Pankaj coordinates with small churches and mosques in the informal settlements, where they know the leadership is trustworthy, who in turn identify the needs of the specific community and help coordinate distribution. (All the requests are vetted by a member of Shah’s team.)

 Shah relies on religious leaders in the slums for logistical help. “I can’t look after the whole world,” Shah says. "Whoever is a ‘good Christian', who goes to the church, gets the food first. I talked to one Imam today at Kamangu Mosque. We will go there, we will pray with them and they will distribute. They are doing a fantastic job. We are 100 percent non-political, without religious bias. We give to everybody.”

 A standard small ‘survival box’ contains 4 kg of maize meal, 2 kg of baking flour, one packet of sanitary pads, salt, cooking fat, curry powder, soap, sweets for the children, 4 kg of chick peas. This plus a bag of fresh vegetables is intended to last one family of 4 for up to 10 days.

Hampers awaiting delivery
Image: ALEXIS CALICE

 So far Team Pankaj has distributed over 19,000 boxes, an average of 1000 boxes a day.

 The project is not without challenges of course. There are enormous logistical issues and security concerns around food distribution in slums.

 Shah explains, “Where the slums are very tight, like Mukuru, where people still have access to alcohol, we give the smaller hampers,” to try to prevent them from selling the food. “I could do 600 large hampers or 2,000 small hampers a day. So I’d rather do 2,000 small hampers a day and give more people food, rather than give one person more, because he will sell some to buy a drink for himself. We are encouraging them to share the food with each other, because we want to go back again and again. We are now on our second round of distribution in 18 days."

 “We find that in some locations people are so hungry… the other day we took 200 hampers to Kibera with names on them, people were identified in advance, and at least 2,000 people turned up. Residents ambushed the truck, so we had to take apart the boxes and give one item to each person. Somebody got a packet of sugar; somebody got a packet of Unga; somebody got a packet of milk from the top of the truck... The people said, ‘ this truck is not getting out of here until you give us all food.’ So, it becomes a threat to our life.”

 “When people are hungry, they can become very angry,” Shah warns. Stampedes and violence are challenges that must be avoided through careful planning. Tear gas had to be fired on Good Friday in Kibera after too many residents struggled to get food donations during a visit by Raila Odinga.

 In spite of these challenges, Shah is undeterred. He is prepared to take the risk to feed the hungry. Over the Easter weekend his team is preparing 5,000 more boxes. Donations are desperately needed to keep food distribution following safely and any contribution will be deeply appreciated. Donations can be made through LIPA NA MPESA, Till Number 5074087 or https://www.etickets.co.ke/teampankaj