By Charles Coldman | Director
Kenya is in the midst of a severe and prolonged drought, with the government having recently declared it a national disaster across half of the country. Parts of our project area have had barely a drop of rainfall in almost a year. Recent harvests have failed, food reserves are exhausted and water sources are drying up.
It is at times like these that our lunch programme is needed more than ever. Earlier this month we extended the programme to a further 100 pupils at three ‘feeder’ pre-schools that serve Kisimenyi Primary, our largest partner school. Many of these young and vulnerable children had been walking long distances through the bush in intense heat to reach Kisimenyi and the promise of a meal, not only placing themselves at great risk but also placing great strain on the facilities at Kisimenyi. Thanks to our intervention, these children are now being fed on-site at the three feeder schools, bringing the total number of children we provide lunch for to more than 2,700.
Food prices on the rise
We too are feeling the effects of the drought. The prices we are paying for food have reached record highs since we launched the programme in September 2013, with beans costing 30% more now than as recently as September last year, and maize up 15% in the same period. This is placing an enormous strain on our already stretched resources. Even if prices do not rise further – which seems improbable – we anticipate that the programme this year will cost 25-30% more to deliver than we had budgeted for only back in November. But with rains not due until late March at the earliest and any subsequent harvests 2-3 months later, it is likely that food shortages will worsen and prices will rise higher still for some while yet. How much higher is almost impossible to predict; these are troubling and uncertain times.
We will do all we can to maintain delivery of the programme without having to scale it back either in terms of the number of days on which we provide lunch or the number of children we feed. But to do this we are going to have to raise many thousands of pounds/dollars more than we originally expected.
If you are able to help in any way we would be extremely thankful for your support.
By Charles Coldman | Director
By Charles Coldman | Director
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