Special Appeal for children displaced by drought

When we first started this project, droughts were a disaster that hit some years and other years were not so bad.  Now, drought is a way of life and, if you want to see the reality of climate change, just pay a visit to Africa.  Parts of Kenya now live with drought as a constant factor in already difficult lives.  Adjusting to the harsh day to day existence of life in constant drought is the new norm.

We see a constant influx to the southern towns and cities of Kenya from these regions of drought, particularly youths searching for escape and sometimes young families migrating south.  Kitale is a frontier town almost.  It is about 120kms from the dryer regions and have good rainfall, and is a growing town offering hope of jobs and food security.  Arrival in a new town, often without education or work skills brings a whole new set of challenges though and homelessness, hunger and life on the streets is all too common.  Even those who were preceded by friends or relatives whoay have found some work and have small homes, often in slums, have to find ways to contribute financially.  These youths are increasingly on our radar for our youth skills training programme.  That project is featured here on GlobalGiving.  Please refer there for more details on how we can help those displaced from their home areas. Soon, we will close the page on the drought project and focus more on that here on GlobalGiving.  Thank you for your help.

Greetings to you all from wet Kitale.  The rains have hit us with full force.  This is great news for the farmers around the Kitale area and, to some extent, our neighbours in the arid north of the country.  Unfortunately, the initial deluges of the season caused considerable flooding in some areas of the dessert where the environment is not equipped to deal with the torrents and rivers and seasonal watercourses overflowed.  Many in Turkana yet again lost homes and livestock.  Constant deforestation and erosion have a role to play here and not enough is done to protect the environment and replenish lost trees.  

Soon, however, the rains in the north will end and months of drought will follow.  Without help to build sand dams or learn sustainable water harvesting techniques, the rain will flow away in rivers and streams.  Many non governmental agencies have started drilling boreholes in villages but, unless they invest in long-term maintenance and unless they reach many still untouched regions, their impact is slow - but improving.

In the meantime, young people still see no future in the region which struggles to maintain its population with limited resources.  They trek south to towns that might offer employment and income.  We try and meet this need by working increasingly with youths through our vocational education and skills training programme which especially targets those who may not have completed school and do not have qualifications to enter usual tertiary education. 

For us in Kitale, we see first hand the effects of climate change and land degradation and we have to accept that many will choose to escape it by heading for urban centres. 

Thanks for your help in supporting these youths who need a small helping hand to become self-reliant.