Kenya Unrest - Food for the Hungry

Worst drought in decades hits Kenya
Emergency relief is urgently needed as Kenya suffers from the effects of a persistent drought.
Because of the lack of food and water caused by a nearly year long drought, scores of people and a large number of livestock animals – particularly cattle, sheep, camels, donkeys and goats – have died in arid northern Kenya, where pastoralists are entirely dependent on their herds.

In villages where Food for the Hungry serves, families have lost as much as 90 percent of their animals and don’t have enough food to feed their children. Most of the animals that are still alive are getting sick or too weak to go where there is pasture.

“Animal carcasses are everywhere. The smell of rotting animals followed us,” reports Food for the Hungry’s emergency relief team. “People are very depressed and discouraged.”

But they continue to fight for their survival. Some bring their animals close to the homesteads to be fed by hand. They walk many kilometers to find grass, roots and tree fruits to feed their animals. To get water, they go to the forest where there are wells.

Food for the Hungry continues to provide food to sponsored children through a school feeding program. Typically, only one or two children in a family will go to school, while the rest help take care of the livestock. But as the animals die, these children have nothing to do. Thus, they may think of going to school, motivated in large part by the promise of a good meal. Consequently, the number of children in schools will swell and more resources will be needed to meet their needs.

Many schools came close to shutting down because of lack of water. But Food for the Hungry was able to provide water to be used in preparing the meals and maintaining proper hygiene in the schools.

In addition, Food for the Hungry continues to monitor the growth of children 5 years and younger through the health program. Those who are underweight receive supplementary food rations.

Food for the Hungry is also proposing a food-for-work program where people will be paid to gather and burn animal carcasses to prevent the spread of disease when the rains start.

It’s more than what most Kenyans can bear. Sami, a young herdsman says: “If we lose our animals, we lose our place in this world; we don’t know who we are anymore.”

our struggle to survive

The Neebe family has lost more than 20 animals to drought – they have only four left. They have tried a few times to take their surviving animals to very far places to graze, but they found out that even in places where there was pasture, many animals were dying. Now they keep their animals nearby to feed on whatever little fodder they can find, hoping their few remaining animals do not die.

Because the survival of their animals is essential to their well-being, three of the five Neebe children take a daily 14 kilometer, 5 hour walk to fetch water for the herd. Read more...

Donate to Kenya Relief