![\"Fatuma](\"https:\/\/www.globalgiving.org\/learn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/FatumaFeatured.jpg\")
\nFatuma in New York at a meeting with the United Nations<\/small><\/p>\n
\nIn Marsabit, people pray five times a day. And for the first time in living memory, every single prayer seems to be for rain.<\/p>\n
Fatuma Abdulkadir Adan could tell the drought was coming more than half a year before the Kenyan government declared an emergency. She tried her best to prepare Marsabit, her hometown and the northernmost county in Kenya, but even the bravest leader can\u2019t fight a drought alone.<\/p>\n
\nFatuma in New York at a meeting with the United Nations<\/small><\/p>\n
\u201cDrought appears as a slow onset,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy do we wait until it\u2019s too late for us?\u201d<\/p>\n
Fatuma, the only female lawyer from Marsabit, founded Horn of Africa Development Initiative (HODI)<\/a> in 2003 to focus on peacebuilding and education in northern Kenya. These days, her work is almost exclusively focused on drought relief.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the roads are unpaved, dust flies everywhere when the wind blows. The trees do not have leaves and the shrubs have dried up. There is nothing for the livestock to graze on,\u201d said Rufo, a 38-year-old widow with six children living in Marsabit with her mother.<\/p>\n In February 2017, the Kenyan government declared a drought emergency, and the drought hit Marsabit particularly hard. Upwards of 30 percent<\/a> of people are suffering from global acute malnutrition, a main indicator of a humanitarian crisis\u2019 severity and twice the threshold considered \u201ccritical.\u201d International humanitarian aid has been limited in remote places like Marsabit, so locally led organizations like HODI are often the sole hope for residents like Rufo.<\/p>\n Nearly 60 percent<\/a> of livestock in Marsabit have died since the beginning of the drought. <\/p>\n Even though the air is now filled with dust, Rufo, who has lived in Marsabit for 18 years, remembers a time when everything was lush and green. \u201cBefore the drought started, there was not a lot of dust, grass was green, and animals had something to graze on,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is the complete opposite now.\u201d<\/p>\n As a result of the drought, 2.7 million people across Kenya are food insecure, including Safo Sallo. She is a 79-year-old grandmother who heads a household of 19 members of her family, depending on neighbors\u2019 generosity for food. Because all of her adult children suffer from mental illness, she is responsible for taking care of her entire family, even at her old age.<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot think beyond my next meal,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Rufo agreed: \u201cWe are living day to day.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n HODI has distributed the only aid that Rufo and Safo received for the first eight months of the drought. Through a GlobalGiving grant, they received a 250 liter water tank and about $30 a month in cash for four months. Rufo earns about five dollars a week washing clothes, and Safo\u2019s family relies completely on charity. Without the grant, they wouldn\u2019t have enough money to feed their families.<\/p>\n When I asked if she\u2019s seen aid come in from other organizations or the government, Rufo was quiet. <\/p>\n \u201cThe only amount of aid I received was from the World Food Program in coordination with the Kenyan government. They gave us two kilograms of rice and two kilograms of beans.\u201d <\/p>\n I asked Rufo when that happened, and how long that amount of food will last. She smiled; it was already gone.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was last week. That food lasted two days.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Eight months into the drought, and no other organization has helped Rufo or Safo.<\/p>\n \u201cMy most important job is that my children do not go hungry,\u201d Rufo said. Her eldest daughter had to drop out of high school to help out at home. The five youngest children are still in school. <\/p>\n \u201cMost of the mothers are feeding their children before they feed themselves,\u201d said HODI\u2019s founder, Fatuma. \u201cSo they are the first victims of drought and hunger.\u201d A mother of two herself, she empathizes with mothers like Rufo struggling to feed their children.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I couldn\u2019t even feed my own two children, I wouldn\u2019t even want to be alive,\u201d Fatuma said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Fatuma believes there is a solution to Rufo and Safo\u2019s pain: Building up long-term resilience to disasters like drought in Marsabit. <\/p>\n Reactive disaster aid including pre-packaged food, bottled water, and limited cash grants to individuals, only go so far, especially when the sky refuses to rain. <\/p>\n Disaster-resilient shelter and infrastructure, sustainable sources of clean water, and drought-resistant crops would help Marsabit in the long run, Rufo and Safo told me. <\/p>\n \u201cI would build houses for the poor. Then, I would buy food and water for them, and livestock, because if people have cows and goats, then they can sell those in the future or slaughter them for food,\u201d Safo explained when I asked how she would respond to the drought if she had more resources. All 19 members of her family live in one room, so sturdy shelter is at the top of her mind.<\/p>\n Rufo believes the entire community needs to come together to build resilience for future droughts. \u201cI would like to see the water crisis get solved\u2026 it requires planning.\u201d<\/p>\n Long-term resilience to drought is HODI\u2019s number one priority\u2014 especially since climate change is causing droughts to occur more often and more severely. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen we ask the communities about their priorities, drought is at the top of everyone\u2019s list,\u201d said Fatuma. As Rufo and Safo know all too well, everything seems insurmountable if you don\u2019t even have enough to eat.<\/p>\n As part of HODI\u2019s long-term resilience plan, Fatuma works with fellow GlobalGiving partner Seed Programs International<\/a> to prepare families for drought. \u201cSeed Programs International trained us on drought resistance, saving water, and planting kitchen gardens,\u201d Fatuma explained. The two organizations work together to train families how to plant kitchen gardens using drought-resistant seeds. HODI also works with Kenya\u2019s meteorological department to keep families apprised of the weather so they can plan ahead and save water for times without rain. <\/p>\n \u201cUnless every household is resilient, people will continue to die of hunger,\u201d Fatuma said. <\/p>\n When the drought was declared in February, Fatuma hoped for help from the international community. But the kind of help she hoped for never came, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe helicopters fly in and act like they\u2019re doing something. While the drought\u2019s still on, people [from INGOs] fly back to Nairobi. The problem with big organizations is that a lot of the time they think the communities don\u2019t know the answers,\u201d Fatuma said. <\/p>\n Sera Bonds, founder and CEO of Circle of Health International (COHI)<\/a>, a nonprofit organization that partners with local women-led organizations around the world, has seen this phenomenon far too often. <\/p>\n \u201cThe international community can be patronizing about what we think people need,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Locally led organizations like HODI are well-poised to respond to crisis. More so, Sera argues, than INGOs. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s an assumption [in the international community] that a disaster in Rwanda is the same as a disaster in Gaza, or that it\u2019s the same in eastern Europe. They aren\u2019t. People need different things, and the people that know what\u2019s needed most are the people on the ground,\u201d Sera explained.<\/p>\n The main problem is that organizations like HODI just don\u2019t have the resources they need to implement the solutions they know would work in their communities. Less than 2 percent of funding for disaster relief traditionally goes to local NGOs, according to The World Disasters Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Fatuma is unfazed by the challenge. <\/p>\n \u201cI have nowhere to run to when there\u2019s a crisis,\u201d Fatuma told me. <\/p>\n The truth is: She doesn\u2019t want to run. Neither does Rufo, the widow in Marsabit. <\/p>\n At the end of our conversation, I asked her if she had ever considered moving away from Marsabit to somewhere without a drought.<\/p>\n \u201cI know the people and I know the language. My family is here,\u201d she said with a cautious smile. \u201cEven with the drought, this is the place for me.\u201d<\/p>\n From drought to flood and everywhere in between, Fatuma is there\u2014committed to fostering resilience in Marsabit so that someday, her community can withstand disaster. Until then, they\u2019re weathering the storm together. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m there with the community forever,\u201d Fatuma said. <\/p>\n A year after the drought was declared in northern Kenya, people like Rufo, Safo, and Fatuma are still recovering. Donate to HODI to support long-term, community-led drought relief and recovery work.<\/em><\/p>\n
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\nW<\/strong><\/big>hen Rufo Waqo leaves her house she sees dust. <\/p>\n![\"GlobalGiving](\"https:\/\/www.globalgiving.org\/learn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/0_WtZZQoedbLvi_hVy.png\")
\nA woman in Marsabit who received a water tank and cash grant from HODI and GlobalGiving.<\/small><\/p>\n
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\nH<\/big><\/strong>ODI\u2019s peacebuilding work, in an area of Kenya rife with ethnic conflict, is difficult to begin with, but \u201cdrought makes HODI\u2019s work so much harder,\u201d said Fatuma. \u201cIt\u2019s like you\u2019re fighting against everything.\u201d She isn\u2019t the only one that feels that way; during a drought, food and water take precedence above all else. Many children in Marsabit have left school.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.globalgiving.org\/learn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/0_t7MB0RK18qqwA3TD.png\")
\nDarmi is a young mother who lives in northern Kenya. The 23-year-old received a water tank from HODI, which she uses to harness and reuse rain water.<\/small><\/p>\n
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\nO<\/big><\/strong>n Nov. 10, exactly nine months after the drought emergency was declared, the rain everyone prayed for finally came. But the ground was bone dry, and the community in Marsabit didn\u2019t have the resources they needed to handle the sudden deluge. The resulting torrential flooding killed six people and displaced more than 400 families<\/a> in Marsabit.<\/p>\n