July 2011
Christian Aid's Sarah Wilson is currently in east Africa. Here she reports back after meeting families trying their best to survive yet another, unrelenting drought.
Adhi Sora Jarso returned to the Elebor settlement in northern Kenya near the Ethiopia border about two years ago. The area had been rich in pasture and she had lived there all her life. But fierce fighting around Elebor meant that her community had to flee for five years until the Kenyan government made it safe for them to return by posting a police presence.
She was very happy when her village was able to return, but shortly after they arrived the drought set in. The increasingly long distances they had to walk between water holes and pasture land meant that one-by-one all her family's cattle died.
Her brother-in-law has one cow left and it is being kept inside the hut to preserve its energy. The family are sharing what little food and water they have with the cow in the hopes that it will survive until more water is trucked in by aid agencies. Cows breed quickly, so even one animal is enough to help a family start over when the rains come again.
Sadia Abdikher lives a bit further south, near the Somali border, with her husband and eight children. They used to have 120 goats before the drought began and now they are down to just 20.
`I am no longer worried about the goats,’ she said, `I am now starting to worry about my children.’
The family drove the animals all the way to Takaba, about 250km away near the Ethiopia border in search of grazing land. But they found little and many animals died along the way.
Before the 2006 drought they had 300 goats. They were left with 50 after the rains began which they managed to rebuilt to 120. This time, she doubts they will be left with any animals as the drought has now lasted for three rainy seasons.
Abdi Noor lives further north near the village of Danaba. He is 22 years old and says this is the longest unrelenting drought he can remember. He used to have eighty cows and is now down to six. He has driven them to a barren area near the town in search of what little nutrition they can find amongst the mainly dead foliage.
If he does not get help for his remaining six cows, he too will be at risk of malnutrition.`I used to get credit from the local store to buy food for the family,’ he explains, `I cannot do that anymore as the animals are too skinny and weak and nobody believes they will survive long enough to sell.’
As well as tankering water to the worst affected areas, Christian Aid partners will be buying the animals of the most vulnerable people at market price.
This will give them money for essentials and also enable them to begin to restock when the rains come again. This sort of intervention means that people do not have to leave their homes and become refugees.
