Food & Goats To Reach Families In Kenya

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. 

 “The situation in these particular communities has worsened since the previous project ended in February 2010, and livestock herds are taking longer to recover than expected,” said deJong.  “So far no other organization has stepped in to provide food except for a one-time distribution conducted by the government which only provided three meals for the month of March.”

Together with its local implementing partners Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Kenya and the Anglican Church of Kenya, CRWRC will provide 1,200 tonnes of maize, 240 tonnes of split peas, and 72 tonnes of cooking oil to families in need.  In exchange for this food, the families will dig 16 water pans to collect rain water during the rainy season, build two grain banks to use for storing food after future harvests, and plant 70,000 trees to help trap future moisture and nutrients in the soil. 

Once there is sufficient forage grass available, CRWRC will also distribute 3,000 goats to 1,000 families in the area to help restock the livestock populations. 

The entire project will cost about $720,000, some of which will come from CRWRC’s Kenyan partners.  The majority of the project will be funded through CRWRC’s membership in the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.