Kenya: Emergency Drought Situation
In certain regions in the Horn of Africa more than 10 million people have been hit by the worst drought in 60 years.
 “The lack of rain has caused a significant food shortage in this part of the world and, in some regions, we are close to a state of famine”, emphasized Mrs Byrsa, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). According to the UN’s data, 3.2 million people in Kenya are already affected by the drought.
This drought has affected the harvests, which has caused cereal prices to soar, meaning that access to food is very difficult, especially for the herdsmen whose cattle are also suffering greatly from the lack of water.
The NGO SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL, which has been present in Kenya since 2006, is working in the area of North Horr which has felt the full force of this terrible drought. “Our teams are putting emergency measures into place for access to water and to sanitation”, explains Bérengère Tripon, regional manager for the Horn of Africa. “To enable the pastoral communities to maintain the sole source of their livelihood, the teams are also supporting agricultural and animal rearing activities. They are distributing veterinary kits, more resistant seeds and livestock and are organising the deworming of cattle.”
During this time, on the other side of the border in Somalia, our teams (based in particular in Bardera) are noticing the arrival of people fleeing from the conflicts and drought en masse and in terrible conditions. They are so weak that emergency food aid has had to be distributed. What urgently needs doing now is to reinforce the subsistence mechanisms so that these pastoral communities can withstand the drought as much as possible.
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Our humanitarian action
Improve food security for populations affected by food
crisis in Kenya, especially in Nairobi slums
- Help 21 300 households to produce their food thanks
to "bagriculture" (growing vegetables in sacks): this
kind of agriculture needs very little water, only a small amount
of land and cheap materials. This is a way for the population
to have a more diversified diet. They can also increase their
incomes by selling the production surplus in local markets. This
kind of agriculture can easily be imitated by other households.
- Increase families' incomes thanks to poultry production:
SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL assists 1 500 households
in poultry production by providing them cages, birds and veterinary products.
- Help and assist people to attain more
intensive agriculture: SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL helps
groups working on small pieces of land to intensify their production
by constructing small greenhouses and providing training for vegetable production and marketing.
Improve living conditions of Kenyan families by setting
up strategies to face the drought
- Improve access to water for 27 000 beneficiaries
and for their cattle: construction
and rehabilitation of 30 hand pumps on existing wells and rehabilitation
of 20 traditional wells, construction of 3 systems to collect
rainwater in 2 schools, training of members of a water committee
to manage the water points; construction of 6 underground tanks;
treatment of water points using chlorination; water trucking in
emergency situations.
- Improve hygiene conditions of the families: construction
of 100 family latrines and 24 latrines in 2 schools, hygiene sessions
for water point users.
- Improve food security for 9.000 people: breeding
support (introduction drought resistant goats, distribution of veterinary kits); agricultural support
(distribution of drought resistant seeds and tools, construction of rainwater harvesting systems, training people in agricultural techniques).
- Improvement of natural resources management: promotion
of 1 000 Fuel Efficient Stoves, training people
to build these Fuel Efficient Stoves.
FOCUS:
"Bagriculture"
 In Kenya, food purchase represents the majority of the household budget.
Inhabitants of Kibera (one of the largest slums in Africa)
are struggling to feed themselves due to lack of access to
food: a basic family meal costs around $0.3 but most of the population
earn less than §1.50 per day.
Working with community participation, the "sack gardening"
project was initiated by SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL in 2007.
It has opened the way for vegetable cultivation in limited slum spaces
and improved purchasing power for beneficiaries, improving their
access to a variety of products such as cabbage and spinach
which are an important part of the typical households' diet in this Eastern African region.
First, community organizers are recruited, who are the linchpins
of the project since they are responsible for training beneficiaries. Parcels of land are selected and used to cultivate
seedlings. The seedlings are re-planted
in sacs, where the vegetables continue to mature and are harvested
every 15 days.
Most of the produce is consumed by households. Any surplus
produce is sold at the markets, providing households with
additional daily income.
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Update : July 2011 |
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