Special Appeal for children displaced by drought

I look forward to the day when I can write a report stating that we no longer have new children needing our help due to drought and we have finished working with those who have come to us in recent years and havve been assisted...... I can dream.

Sadly, Kenya is still in the midst of the worst prolonged drought in decades.  Rainfall is not meeting the needs of the people living in the northern parts of the country and, like many of the sub Saharan regions, the cumulative effect of several years of drought has been catastrophic.  Not only is the immediate affect of drought devastating to livestock and livelihoods, but it is now clearly apparent that whole ways of life and culture need to be changed to deal with climate change and future drought.

We are now looking at upscaling what we had hoped would be an emergency aid, one-off programme into an ongoing regular part of our work.  We now need to put full-time, long-term measures in place to deal with the constant influx of families and children fleeing from impossible conditions in the arid lands a few hours north of us.  

We can no longer simply hand out temporary aid and relief - this must now be accompanied by longer term strategies and resettlement programmes enabling families to find alternative means to provide sustainable livelihoods to raise their families within.  New farming practices, vocational training programmes, better enrollment in schools - all part of a longer term strategy working alongside emergency short-term rescue and rehabilitation programmes, in addition  to partnerships with other organisations providing boreholes and other water programmes..

For those of us fortunate enough to turn on a tap or a sprinkler, to take a dip in a swimming pool, surely we can donate a little something to provide for those who dream of water?

Links:

• News footage regarding Kenya's appalling drought

When we launched this project, areas like Turkana and Baringo were in the throes of one the worst droughts in memory.  In the years since, rainfall was more reliable and people started to get back on their feet.  The influx of families to Kitale gradually lessened and this gave us more time to help settle those who had been displaced, enter them in schools, vocational training and other sustainable income generating schemes to enable them to either settle around this area or to return with new skills to their former homes.  

Covid caused delays in a lot of our plans and schools and training programmes had to be put on hold but courses have resumed and those families we have been working with are all well underway with regard to training and new businesses.

Unfortunately, we have started receiving worrying reports of drought in the Turkana region north of Kitale and it is likely that, unless there is a rapid improvement in the situation, that we will shortly find ourselves having to repeat the exercise we did a few years ago consisting of emergency rescue and rehabilitation of youths and families who chose to flee their desert homes.  We hope this drought will not be as devastating as the previous one and we sincerely hope that we can reach out to those in need as we did before.

Covid seems very far away for those living in remote regions such as Turkana who have little contact with the major towns and cities.  However, weather patterns and their effect on their lives bring terrible hardships of far more immediate concern to us all.  Please help us to get our emergency preparations underway to work with partner organisations in delivering urgent aid while also welcoming those who are displaced.  Thank you.