July 2011
For Christian Aid staff in east Africa, travelling around the region means they have to confront the realities of people living in drought conditions – as our emergency manager, Maurice Onyango, describes.
As you travel in northern Kenya and into southern Ethiopia, you'll find the roads are littered with animal carcasses.
Visit local households and you'll see vulnerable families that are starving and that have, in most cases, gone without food for days on end.
In places where aid has yet to reach, you'll find elderly relatives left behind, dying because they are too frail to travel with their families to find food and water.
You'll see children who have dropped out of school to help their families search for something to eat and drink. This can take days, with people walking almost 50 kilometres (approximately 30 miles), and sometimes further.
People are so desperate that it's not unusual to come across children begging for water on the roadside as you're driving around. That gives you some idea of the scale of the problem here.
The situation is grim, even according to humanitarian standards, but you have to provide assistance the best way you can to save lives.
