Build 152 Resilient Villages in Horn of Africa

Thousands of families are facing starvation in Marsabit County, northern Kenya. Every day, we hear stories of people who faint as a result of hunger in areas not far away from where our own office is located. These are heartbreaking stories, considering many of these individuals are mothers with children. With the resources we have so far received, we are supporting 80 of the worst affected families for four months, beginning September 2017.

The 80 families were identified and selected by communities in which they live, and also through our own list of most vulnerable persons and families which our staff updates every month. The selected families were then vetted to ensure only the most needy receive this assistance.

Instead of buying and distributing food to these families, we are sending money directly to the heads of these 80 families, 82.5% of which are headed by women. Every month, these families will receive $30 to buy food and water. The first cash transfer was sent to them on September 26, 2017. Cash transfers give these families the choice to decide on the most essential food items, and prevents other people taking advantage of these vulnerable people. 

We have also distributed 250L water tanks to each of these 80 families in the last one month. They do not have storage facilities for water, and these tanks give them the ability to buy and save up some water using the money they receive during the cash transfer. 

One of the persons benefitiing is a 79 year old grandmother, who heads a household of 19 persons. They are very poor and seven of her adult children have mental health problems and she is the one who cares for all of them. Without a father figure, they all live in a small room with few belongings. The grandmother goes out everyday at lunch time to wait outside restaurants in town and when they throw out left over food, she collects it and goes home to feed her children and grandchildren. With the $30 she receives every month through this project, she will be able to provide at least one meal every day for her family for four months.   

The 250L water tank she received from the project will increase the family's water storing capacity from 20 litres to 270 litres. The family is now able to buy and store water for more than a day with the money they received. 

Links:

• HODI's website

The drought situation is becoming worse by the day with the household production of milk and meat at its lowest and the price of milk and other dairy products has skyrocketed. Most of the children are malnourished and families are skipping meals to eat one meal a day. In some villages the people are going with no food the whole day and access to water for human and livestock consumption beinyou and at its lowest. 

We have noot been able to raise enough to even cater for one household out of the 250 and our appeal is to reach out to support our cause. On a positive note we were able to raise 200$ through mobile money and we used it to get water for 2 villages. Over 50 households benefited from the water trucking in Badha Hurri. 

The next six months (July- December) will be the toughest with predictions of the rains failure in October. We look forward to keep you posted with the updates from the field. We will be sharing some pictures from Marsabit on how the situation is on the ground. Most families lost 80% of their livestock during the drought and the remaining ones were wiped out by a one flash floods. It is our hope we will be able to support the 250 families for the next 6 months. 

Links:

• HODI website