By UK Correspondent

LEADING risk solutions provider, Diaspora Insurance, has teamed up with Diaspora County48 Kenya to help a cancer patient stranded in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) return home and continue with her critical treatment.

Fatuma Musanzu Thoya, a 36-year-old single mother of five, was hospitalised and undergoing chemotherapy for leukaemia in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi and became stranded when her residency permit expired.

Consequently, she could not continue with the treatment in the UAE and, therefore, needed to be urgently evacuated back home to Kenya.

And, adding to her distress, three of her children have also been suspended from school over non-payment of fees.

Diaspora County48 Kenya, which brings together Kenyans in the Diaspora, immediately launched a fundraising to assist with the evacuation costs.

“Diaspora County48 Kenya governor, Bernard Kavyu, dispatched the Middle East treasurer, Dorothy Omollo from Dubai to Abu Dhabi to visit Fatuma and establish her situation,” said the group’s Middle East regional coordinator, Wycliffe Adero.

“At the same time governor Kavyu approached Diaspora Insurance for assistance and we are very grateful to report that Diaspora Insurance agreed to donate an air-ticket for Fatuma from Abu Dhabi to Mombasa Kenya, even though Fatuma has not taken up the Diaspora Insurance Evacuation Cash Plan.

“We say a big thank you to Diaspora Insurance for the continued support of the Kenyan Community in Diaspora. Similarly, we urge all Kenyans living abroad to sign up for Diaspora Insurance Cash Plan to protect themselves and their loved ones abroad as well as those back home in Kenya.”

Diaspora Insurance and Diaspora County48 Kenya have since established a partnership and engaged the Nairobi government to facilitate the provision evacuation and repatriation insurance cover for Kenyans living abroad.

“ … we have had many cases of Kenyans in distress stranded in Diaspora,” said Kavyu, who is also Diaspora Insurance’s Director for East Africa.

“We raised this issue with the Principal Secretary State Department for Diaspora Affairs, Ms. Roseline Njogu.”

He added; “Diaspora Insurance, working in collaboration with Diaspora County48 Kenya, has paid for the evacuation of this lady to Kenya, where she will require a bone marrow transplant within the next 14 days.

Based in the United Kingdom, Diaspora Insurance covers some 13 African diaspora nationalities across the world as well as their families back home.

The company provides specialist and bespoke risk solutions for transnationals such as expatriates and diasporans, covering their personal and family protection requirements.

It’s flagship Diaspora Funeral Cash Plan is a “guaranteed acceptance” and “no medicals asked” policy which is denominated in stable hard currencies such as the Pound Sterling, US Dollar, and the Euro. 

Said Kavyu; “I wish to take this opportunity to encourage Kenyans living in Diaspora to sign up for Diaspora Insurance to protect themselves in case they find themselves in distress or, worst case, dead abroad.”