DanChurchAid
Kenya
ACT responding to Kenya drought
Source: ACT International
A member of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International that is working in one of the areas hardest hit by the drought is joining the call for immediate assistance to the region.
“The international community must wake up to the reality of this growing crisis before it is too late,” says Kirsten Engebak, area representative for Kenya, Somalia and Uganda for ACT member Norwegian Church Aid (NCA). Engebak recently returned from a two-day visit to the Mandera district of northern Kenya where she witnessed first-hand the extent of the crisis unfolding across the Horn of Africa.
“I was prepared for the worst – but what I saw almost cannot be described,” Engebak explains after traveling to Mandera to assess the situation in response to reports from NCA’s partner, the Rural Agency for Community Integrated Development and Assistance (RACIDA), that the drought was causing extensive suffering and loss of life across the region.
“The situation is terrible. We are facing a disaster,” Engebak says. She reports that animals are dying by the thousands, and their carcasses lie scattered across the countryside. According to reports she received, it is estimated that around 60 percent of livestock in the area has already died. “More, if not all, remaining animals will die soon if help does not arrive quickly. There is absolutely nothing to eat whatsoever – for livestock or humans,” she adds.
NCA, along with four other ACT members and their partners in Kenya, are already responding to the worsening situation. ACT issued an appeal for $2.4 million to its members around the world on February 2 to fund the Kenyan members’ response. Working with RACIDA in central and western Mandera, NCA is assisting drought-affected communities with access to water for human and livestock use and in finding better ways to grow crops in order to help the communities lessen the effects of the current and future droughts.
Engebak’s visit to communities showed how urgently this assistance is needed.
“I heard stories of families that once had owned 300 animals but who were now left with only two or three. This was more the norm than the exception. I did not see one blade of grass or one healthy tree during my journey of 230 kilometers through the desert. With no food for the animals, there is also no food for the pastoralists who mainly live on milk from the goats and camels. They are starving,” reports Engebak.
Engebak visited the only hospital in Mandera for the area’s population of 300,000 where she saw nine-month-old babies who weighed no more than three kilograms. Many of them, she reports, had tuberculosis, malaria, or respiratory problems due to a weakened immune system brought on by long-term malnutrition.
The hospital has set up a feeding unit where RACIDA helps provide food and water for people who are strong enough to walk the distance. Some people have to walk for many kilometers to receive this assistance, according to Engebak. “RACIDA is doing a terrific job with very limited means,” says Engebak. “Both the UN and other NGOs have also been able to assist the organization in their work to date. But the organization needs financial support if it is to continue its work here.”
“The people of Mandera need water now. If not, they will continue to face the enormous hardship that water collection represents,” Engebak explains. She says that previously, the nearest water sources were four kilometers away, but now many people have to walk two to three times that distance to find a well that still contains water. “Once there, they often have to wait up to 18 hours to fill their containers – and then walk the long distance home with a heavy load.”
An early response to the drought
Elsewhere, in the Ikutha and Mutha Divisions of Kitui District, another partner of NCA, the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA), was responding to the drought early. Before it joined the current ACT appeal for Kenya in early February as an implementing partner of NCA, and before the Government of Kenya declared the current drought a national disaster, PCEA carried out a food assessment in these areas and found there was an urgent need for food relief there.
PCEA appealed to its presbyteries to contribute food to assist the residents of Ikutha and Mutha Divisions as well as those in other areas affected by the drought. Within less than a month, the presbyteries had contributed food worth more than 5 million Kenyan shillings (US$70,000).
On February 28, 60 tons of food and assorted used clothing were delivered to Mutha, about 350 kilometers from Nairobi. The food delivery consisted of maize flour, cooking oil, maize, rice, porridge flour, powdered milk and pumpkins. The items were to be distributed later to more than 1,000 families.
The area senior chief said he had never seen this kind of generosity in his entire life, according to a report about the distribution from a PCEA staff member.
PCEA’s early response to the drought is in addition to its work under the appeal - AFKE61 - Response to Kenya Drought and Famine – under which it plans to provide safe and adequate water by drilling new boreholes.
Reports from Norwegian Church Aid and the Presbyterian Church of East Africa were used as the basis for this News Update.
DanChurchAid is a member of ACT International - a global alliance of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergencies.
