Kenya Airways is committed to making a difference not only to the lives of their guests, but to the communities within which they operate. With Ebola taking its toll on parts of West Africa, and Sierra Leone being one of the countries worst hit, Kenya Airways team members in the Johannesburg office decided that more should be done to offer assistance.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has cited basic hygiene issues as one of the key factors in the spread of the deadly disease, and subsequently went door to door offering households soap to assist in promoting good hygiene practices. With this in mind, KQ Johannesburg embarked on an initiative to collect soap for Ebola hit countries. Team members leapt at the opportunity to make a difference, but a challenge arose in terms of getting the soap to Sierra Leone, as KQ is currently not flying into Freetown. This was quickly resolved, and KQ was overwhelmed by the kind gesture of African Minerals Limited and Airland Logistics, who assisted in transporting the collected soap.

To date, five boxes containing more than 100kg of soap, all collected by KQ team members, have been sent to Sierra Leone. This will be distributed in the epicentre of the epidemic over the coming days. The KQ team plans to send another batch of soap in December, and welcomes contributions from other members of the industry. Donations can be dropped off with the Marketing department, at the Kenya Airways Johannesburg offices in Morningside, before 5 December 2014.

For media related enquiries, contact Lesley Simpson Communications on Tel: +27 11 463 8195, Fax: +27 11 463 8196 or Email: belinda@lscpr.co.za

About Kenya Airways

Kenya Airways, a member of the Sky Team Alliance, is a leading African airline flying to 65 destinations worldwide, 38 of which are in Africa and carries over three million passengers annually. It continues to modernize its fleet with its 48 aircraft fleet being one of the most modern in Africa and includes its flagship B787 Dreamliner aircrafts. The on-board service is renowned and the lie-flat business class seat on the wide-body aircraft is consistently voted among the world's top 10. Most recently it has scooped top awards at the Africa Investor (Ai) Tourism Investor Awards and was declared the Business Airline of the Year in Africa. Kenya Airways takes pride for being in the forefront of connecting Africa to the world and the World to Africa through its hub at the new ultra-modern Terminal 1A at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. For more information, please visit www.kenya-airways.com.