By Cathy Herholdt | Communications Officer
Your support is helping bring clean water, food and better health to those affected by the ongoing drought in the Horn of Africa.
Hassan is a fifth grade student at Benane Primary school in a drought-stricken town near the Somalia border. He regularly leaves class to collect water from a nearby mud hole fed by a spring, as do 571 other children from the school. This is the main source of water for their town, as well as Somali refugees in a settlement a few miles away, all of whom tromp through the school compound with jerrycans to collect water.
Mr. Murimi, Hassan’s teacher, is excited about a rainwater catchment system installed by World Concern at the school.
“It has been a problem for a long time,” he said. “Every time water runs out, they have to go fetch.”
World Concern installed rain gutters around the school which feed into six storage tanks. With full tanks, Hassan and others will be able to spend more time learning and playing.
World Concern also built latrines to improve sanitation. Previously, human waste polluted the spring, causing health problems for the entire community.
Our work in the Horn of Africa is transitioning from disaster response to long-term assistance, including farming and agricultural support.
The people of this region are primarily pastoralists who herded cattle and goats until the drought took all their livestock. They have little experience raising crops—so little that some farmers have cut the tassels off corn stock thinking they were harvesting the fruit.
World Concern is showing hungry people a connection between the maize flour they receive from relief agencies and the plants that bear the grain through community crop farming. Locals receive tools, seeds, and farming instructions.
Mama Khadija lost her herd in the drought, but is now learning to farm.
“If its tractors, seeds or advice, bring it, we need it all. Even if the water runs out, we are not leaving our farms,” she said. “I have God with me, and my eyes are open now. If I will still be alive, I think I will be very advanced in two years.”
Thank you for helping bring lasting change to hungry families and thirsty communities in the Horn of Africa.
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