The Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) employees under the umbrella Webuye Teachers Welfare donated food and other basic needs to their counterparts employed in private schools and BOMs. According to the group, their counterparts who were yet to be absorbed by the government stopped receiving salaries shortly after all learning institutions were shut.
Since the closure of institutions due to COVID-19, most institutions had been unable to pay employees, some were sent on unpaid leave while others got dismissed.
“We understand our colleagues under BOM and private schools have lost their income since COVID-19 interrupted normal operation in learning institutions. We raised KSh 210,000 to support them get basic needs,” said the welfare’s administrator Amos Wafula.
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Wafula said the group which comprised over 420 members was touched by the plight of their colleagues and raised concern that the government had not done much to cater for the welfare of educators not formally employed.
“The 420 of us contributed KSh 500 each and raised over KSh 200k which we used to purchase foodstuffs and other basic needs since they don’t have income to support themselves,” explained Wafula. He added that such programs will continue until the situation is normalized in the country.
“Such programmes have been existing since the pandemic started and we have been helping the most vulnerable. We are now targeting our teachers who are not on the payroll until when schools will reopen,” he added.
He observed that the welfare’s humanitarian assistance for teachers under BOM and those in private schools was a precedent for government and other corporates to follow up with similar support gestures.