30th August, 2011
AMREF provides help to the forgotten areas affected by the drought
Lamu, a coastal district of eastern Kenya, is now witnessing the dire effects of the drought, which is spreading across the Horn of Africa. Women and children, the most vulnerable members of the community, have become weak and prone to potentially fatal waterborne diseases. Young men, desperate to find water and pasture for their livestock, have had no choice but to search further and further afield. Women, children and the elderly have been left behind, with hardly anything to eat.
Seventy-year-old Anne Wafula and her four grandchildren has been surviving on a cup of porridge a day for the last few months. She is too old and weak to walk the 20km to the nearest government food distribution centre. This distribution centre, though well-stocked, is reliant on the availability of transport to take the food the day's journey to Lamu. This transport is unfortunately more and more infrequent.
Apart from the government, AMREF is the only organisation providing support to communities in this area of Kenya. Lamu is one of Kenya’s poorest areas, with 60% of the population living in abject poverty. The lack of clean water, coupled with increasing malnutrition, has made diseases such as diarrohea rife particularly among women and children living there.
Apart from the government, AMREF is the only organisation providing support to communities in this area of Kenya.
AMREF has already been working in Lamu for a number of years, on a largescale project focused upon improving maternal, new born and child health. Bernard Kimani, Project Assistant for this project, raised the issue of the urgent need for increased health care provision together with the food relief distribution, especially at a time like this, where there is a risky interplay between hunger and disease.
Under AMREF’S drought response initiative, approximately 18,000 children and 25,000 women will be provided with increased access to clean water, sanitation facilities, and food relief.
- FInd out more about AMREF's response to the drought
- Find out more about AMREF's work in Kenya