Voices from the field

As we reach Camp-Garba Dispensary at the Catholic Mission of St Antioconear Isiolo town, there are more than a hundred women with their babies and young children waiting in the compound. From afar it looks like a convivial gathering as the women seated under the shade of a tree are casually chatting to each other.   

We’re warmly greeted by Veronica Mathe and Silas Karethi, Volunteer Community Health Workers at the Camp-Garba Dispensary, where ActionAid distributes food to some of the most at risk in the region which includes children under five, breastfeeding mothers and pregnant women.

“In April, at the beginning of the drought, we had 112 cases of severe malnutrition here,” says Veronica.  “Now we have 266 and not all cases are in the programme as many of them have yet to be included.”  

Veronica adds: “The numbers are always rising. As you can see here, we’re admitting at least 30 new cases a day and every month we see more and more at risk cases.”

ActionAid in conjunction with the World Food Programme and Kenya’s Ministry of Health runs a Supplementary Feeding Programme here where it distributes a ready to use nutritionally rich Corn-Soya Blend mix. Complete with mineral supplements, the corn-soya porridge is specifically formulated for malnourished children and a portion is a meal on its own. 

Soon, some of the women from the compound start joining us on the veranda. When I ask Veronica what’s going on she explains that the women want to talk to us. They want to tell us their stories and the problems they’ve been facing since the drought. 

“ActionAid is one of the only NGOs assisting people in this area at the moment. That’s why they want to talk to you. They know that you will listen to them and that you can help them and their children,” Veronica explains

We meet Katra Hussein Mohamed Asano. She is holding her daughter Abril Hussein, a severely malnourished 18-month old toddler who weighs only 6kg, the weight of a healthy 5-month-old baby. 

“The baby’s weight started decreasing because we had many problems at home. When the baby was very small we used to also give her camel’s milk, but because of the drought we lost our camels. We used to have three camels but they died last February,” Katra explains.

“My baby is categorized as severely malnourished and is now on Plumpy’nut and our family is part of the supplementary feeding programme. Since my baby started taking the Plumpy’nut program she is improving.” 

Plumpy'nut is a peanut-based food that is used in famine relief.The ingredients are peanut paste, vegetable oil, powdered milk, powdered sugar, vitamins, and minerals, combined in a sterile foil pouch.

ActionAid distributes 7kg of corn soya blend per month per malnourished child and often provides a protection ration to feed the rest of the family with an extra 10kgs. 

Enrico Eminae, Regional Coordinator for ActionAid Kenya explains that the real challenge lies with feeding the children. “The problem comes when you only give food to the one malnourished child in the family. If you only provide food-aid for one child the ration will certainly end up shared among the others in the household."

To get round this problem ActionAid also gives extra food for the rest of the family so that they don’t interfere with the malnourished child’s progress. But during these hard times the extra food is sometimes not sufficient.

As Jamarose Akuam a widow with five children explains:  “The amount of food I get a month sometimes only lasts us for three days. Though it is supposed to be supplementary, it’s all the food I have and I feed the kids with it everyday.”

Earlier this year I returned to Narok. I wanted to go back again to see the progress made at the school since the donations of family and friends made building two new classrooms possible. Their generosity also meant that a small water hole could be enlarged into a community dam, which I am sorry to say is currently dry as they are awaiting the rains and the drought is at a critical stage once again.However, it is heartening to know that in this current difficult time ActionAid is helping communities like this in Kenya by responding to their need, by providing food aid to schools so that 1,900 children benefit.

I also planted trees in the new nursery at the school so that in future years the children will be able to eat their lunch outside in the shade. I also hope that the trees will encourage the rains that are desperately needed for the crops and the livestock not to mention the population themselves. My name is to go next to my tree and also one that Mokoi planted so next time I go I will be able to see its progress.

Mokoi will be 15 this year, is in Class 6 and is second in the class of 42! He has two more years to go before he takes his Junior Certificate and hopefully will go onto High School for four years. Since my last visit I am pleased to report that he can now speak English! We sat alone twice and chatted about his life at school, things he does at home to help his family, his hopes for the future and of course about my life in England. Once again I was invited to Mokoi’s home. Progress has even been made there. The fence keeps out wild animals; dad has constructed two new wooden and stone homes which are waiting to be plastered. There is still no piped water and mama has to walk miles to get it now that the dam is dry. There is also no electricity but everyone is happy at the new additions and I hope that one day they will get water piped in.

I have witnessed first hand that sponsoring a child works, changes the lives of children and their communities and gives you a connection with one child if you wish to have it by writing to them. It empowers local people to do things for themselves, to make their hopes reality and their dreams come true in certain circumstances.

So if I can ask anything of you in these most difficult of times, and believe me ours are nothing compared to theirs, it would be to sponsor a child and change a life. Your monthly contribution does get there I have seen it for myself and I am so pleased and proud that I have become involved with ActionAid in the way that I have. 

Leya Chede, a farmer from Pallisa district in eastern Uganda, explains what a huge difference this has made to her:

Around 200 families have left Garufa in search of food and water since the start of the drought and at least 50 of them have fled to refugee camps. A 70-year-old man in Garufa, who did not want to give his name, explained: “Tomorrow me and a group of 20 people are leaving for the refugee camp. I have never left my home before and I don’t want to go but I feel that I have no choice.”

Roney Shuriye, a 70-year-old woman from Garufa points to her last goat laying listless in her compound. A man struggles to lift it to its feet but it falls back down. Roney has lost a total of six cows and sixty goats and sheep in the past three months. “Our children are suffering from diarrhoea and lack of food. Our livestock are dying. I lost all my animals. You can see my last goat is there and it is weak, about to die,” she says.

ActionAid is not yet active in Garufa, but plans to start work there as soon as we have enough funds to do so. It’s interesting to see the stark contrast between where we work and where we don’t. Garufa is comparable both in size and demographics to Badana - a village in Eastern Province where ActionAid Kenya has been distributing food since the first signs of the drought back in December 2010. Over the years Badana has also been host to ActionAid school feeding, water irrigation, water tracking and many other programs helping the community to cope better with the recurring droughts.

Both communities are made up of Muslim pastoralists originating from Somalia and Ethiopia. They are both facing one of the harshest droughts ever to hit the region, but are coping with the situation in startling different ways. In Badana, ActionAid is now drilling a new borehole and has stepped up its emergency food relief programme from 70 to 100 per cent of the population. This is in complete contrast to Garufa where people have had to flee to other regions of the country or to Somali refugee camps in order to find food. I point out this difference to Enrico who’s been working as ActionAid Kenya’s Regional Coordinator for over six years. “It is during these extreme circumstances that the impact of our work stands out most,” he says.

ActionAid Kenya needs £1.5 million to expand its work into villages like Garufa to help women like Roney. As Enrico says: “We need to about addressing the emergency situation, and not only in the areas where we are currently working. If we were to leave out neighbouring areas we would create potential for conflict by providing resources to one community next to another that receives nothing.”

We’re giving food to families in some of the worst affected areas and providing free school meals to encourage parents to keep their children in school

We’ve been working with communities affected by the drought, buying surplus livestock for an above-market price so families have money to buy vital supplies.

We're trucking fresh clean water to schools and villages and repairing boreholes.

In Somaliland, we work in the drought-affected Togdheer, Sanaag and Sool regions, where we've been providing water to affected communities. Whilst rainfall has been below normal in Somaliland, the humanitarian situation is better than in the troubled South of Somalia where conditions are reported to be dire.