What do you do when you rely on your herd of cattle and goats to make a living, and there is no water or grass to feed them because of drought?  What do you do when this is the third year in a row that you and your community have faced this situation, and more than 99% of your livestock have already died?  These are the tough questions facing thousands of families right now in southwestern and central Kenya, where years of drought have wiped out animal populations and left people with few options for food and income. 

The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee is responding by distributing food to 4,000 families in eight communities from July through December.  This will be followed up by a goat-restocking project to provide 1,000 families with three goats each. 

“We are following up on a previous project which included communities in the areas of Isiolo, Narok, and Kajiado where large numbers of livestock succumbed to the drought in 2009 and where the recent harvest did not yield significant crops,” explains CRWRC’s Director of disaster response, Wayne deJong.

The previous project provided relief food to 10,670 Kenyan households between April and August 2009, and October 2009 through February 2010.  The project phased out in February when a successful short rain season allowed 70% of families to harvest enough food.  However, the areas of Isiolo, Narok, and Kajiado, did not have sufficient rains and the harvest did not yield results.  In addition to drought, these families are unable to purchase food because food prices have risen to 115% of their 2007 price.  Read full story.