Special Appeal for children displaced by drought

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.