Grace Wanjiru, a 10-year-old from Madoya in Nairobi's Huruma Estate, caught Kenyans' attention after a video surfaced of her making several home-made facemasks which she then distributed to her friends, in a bid to play her part in the fight against Covid-19.
Wanjiru made the masks using rubber bands and special paper, revealing in the widely circulated video that she bought the materials with her own savings.
"I've made 21 masks. By tomorrow morning, I'll give all the children because I've seen people suffering. Dad buying his (mask), mom buying hers, so I took my savings and bought these things," she stated.
Wanjiru's initiative received a major boost on Wednesday, January 15, when she met Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko at his private office, with the governor offering significant support to the young girl.
The governor promised to give Wanjiru a weekly supply of sanitisers and 5,000 facemasks to distribute to residents of Huruma in Nairobi.
She was also sent home with 2,000 facemasks to distribute to her friends immediately.
He also gifted Wanjiru's parents several essential items including cartons of soap bars, diapers, cooking oil, bales of wheat and maize flour.
Sonko told Wanjiru to return for more items once they depleted the initial batch. The governor, however, advised Wanjiru to focus on school despite her display of entrepreneurial talent.
Wanjiru requested the governor to supply her with 1,000,000 masks as she wanted to help 1,000,000 children like herself around the country.
Wanjiru's mother who accompanied Wanjiru to Sonko's office stated that she hadn't thought her daughter's creative activity at home would lead to such acknowledgment.
"When she started this work, it was like a joke, I didn't think she'd get so far with it. I have to thank the Governor, we are thankful to him for always looking out for poor people," she stated.
Wanjiru also took time to advise her fellow children on precautionary measures to take to prevent the spread of the virus.
"I want to advise children at home to stay at home, to wash their hands with soap and water and not to cough into their hands or handkerchiefs because they might spread Corona[virus] if they have it.
"They should remember to cough into their elbows and stay safe," she stated.
The governor had stirred up controversy on Tuesday, March 14 over the inclusion of mini-bottles of Hennessy brandy in food packs donated to various families to aid them during the pandemic.
Sonko insisted that the donation of Hennessy was informed by what he termed as virus-killing properties of alcohol, citing the use of Alcohol-based sanitizers.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), however, consumption of alcohol does not help protect from Covid-19.
Watch a video of Wanjiru at Sonko's office on April 15, 2020 below:
