Drought-Affected Kenyans Receive Food Aid
CRWRC News | August 28, 2009
Kenya is drying up. Crops are stunted, livestock are dying, and 3.8 million people – an increase of one million people this year alone - are facing significant hunger.
“The rainy season in East Africa has been anything but,” says Chris Shiundu, CRWRC national relief manager in Kenya. “The crops simply did not grow.”
Before
Today
In the face of this crisis, CRWRC is continuing existing food aid and food-for-work programs, which currently provide food to 10,670 families or about 64,000 people from Kenya’s pastoral region North of Mt. Kenya to the coastal southeastern lowlands region around Mombasa. Food for work projects typically promote activities that improve food security, such as digging reservoirs or building erosion control terraces to make planting new crops more efficient. Food is then given as payment for the work. Both food aid and food-for-work programs are Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB) projects, and are available for matching grants from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
A water pan created through a "Food for Work" project
“CRWRC and CFGB do provide food aid, but we are also committed to increasing food security for the long term,” says Shiundu. “People who are hungry need to realize that they can have food for their families even during times of drought.”
It is now estimated that 3.8 million people are affected by the Kenya drought, with small scale farmers the hardest hit. Drought not only affects people, but also the animals people depend on for milk and meat. ReliefWeb reports that by the end of the season, at least half of the goat and cattle populations will have perished from drought-related causes. Rising food prices are also increasing the number of the hungry people in Kenya, with maize costing as much as 130 per cent over last year in some parts of the country.
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Choose "East African Drought 2009" from the Disaster Category