IMS – East Africa section
12/04/2021
Easter greetings to all the readers of the IMS newsletter!
The East Africa section of IMS, has its offices in Nairobi – Kenya, and recently it has changed its management, now entrusted to the Marist Brothers of the Province of East – Central Africa.
The handing over of the management of the office took place last December 1st, 2020, between the Kenya Conference of the Catholic Bishops and the Marist Brothers. Thereafter, we established the offices within the premises of the Marist International University College, and we have tried to have a smooth transition within this special time of the Covid-19 pandemic situation.
Currently, we are working in the office: Ms Gladys Biwott, as the Project officer; Mr Paskal Olweyo, as the Financial and Administration officer; and Br J. Teodoro Grageda, FMS, as the executive Secretary of the section.
We have worked this first quarter of the year, establishing in our new settlement, welcoming the different group managers to be familiar with our offices, and we hope that soon we will be able to offer an accurate updated list of all the affiliated members to this section.
The current pandemic situation has invited us to improve the way of presenting the claims in a dematerialized way. This has also taken some time from our side as we accompany the groups to do a proper work, that in the end will render a good flow of information between the groups and the section, with a good speed of the reimbursement.
We have been ready to orient the groups that need special attention, due to financial problems that derivate from the world pandemic of Covid-19, and to connect them with the Central offices of IMS for further assistance. This has been the case also on situations where some members have been seriously affected by the pandemic, and have incurred in heavy expenses from their hospital bills. Highlighting the understanding that IMS is a solidarity society among all its members.
We have approached some of the groups that were not having enough information about the way to proceed with their affiliations and were not clear on the way to be part of it. We believe that good attention to the groups will help them to be at ease and able to share their experiences with others.