“I pray we get rain by the mercy of God.” - Crisis in Kenya: Children on the brink of catastrophe
WE STAND SIDE BY SIDE WITH CHILDREN IN THE WORLD'S TOUGHEST PLACES.
Friday 5 August 2022 – A severe drought crippling northeastern Kenya has driven the number of children facing acute malnutrition up by 25% so far this year to nearly one million with fears this will rise further if forecasts for another failed rainy season prove to be accurate, leading to an unprecedented catastrophe.
Save the Children is releasing a series of powerful images by award-winning photographer Tommy Trenchard from the epicenter of the drought to illustrate the devastating impact of the crisis on children’s lives.
The photographs capture their struggle to survive, living in one of the harshest environments on earth. Families are forced to dig for fresh water in dried riverbeds, children describe not knowing where their next meal will come from or if they can afford to go to school, and mothers nurse their sick malnourished children as they cry through the night.
The Horn of Africa is facing its worst drought in 40 years after four consecutive failed rains with the crisis compounded by rising food prices due to the war in Ukraine and the fall out of the COVID-19 pandemic. At least 18.6 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are living with acute food insecurity and rising malnutrition and this number could rise to 20 million by September. This includes more than 7 million children suffering from acute malnutrition with two million facing the most dangerous form - severe acute malnutrition.
Mahad* lives in northern Garissa province with her mother, father and seven siblings. Her family has been devastated by the effects of the drought, losing hundreds of animals. Their bones can be seen scattered all around their home amongst the desert shrubland, which hasn’t seen rain for several years after successive failed rains. The animals were their livelihood, and now they are gone the family struggle to afford food, often having just two meals a day and sometimes not eating at all. Her father *Hussein says, if you walk around their village you’ll find many houses who haven't eaten at all today. Mahad’s* biggest worry is being able to stay in school, her parents are struggling to afford the school fees, and face the prospect of having to keep Mahad* at home because they can’t pay. Her favorite subject is social studies, and hopes to become a teacher one day. Her mother *Batulo worries for her children, as there is little or no medical care available in the village. The nearest hospital is over 20 miles away, which is impossible for them to travel on foot. If they are ill, all they can do is give them gum Arabic, which is a type of tree sap, thought to provide high levels of nutrition. Save the Children supported Community Health workers provide outreach services to the village, for those that are unable to access healthcare services in rural communities. Mahad*’s family have also received a cash grant, but require more support as the crisis deteriorates. Hussein’s* story in his own words: We used to have a lot of cattle and goats. We used to have 300 goats and 20 cattle. Now we have 30 goats and only one cow. The animals have died. It's been happening for the past two years. You can see their bones all around. There wasn't enough pasture for them. And they started getting diseases. We're still alive. We haven't died yet. But only God knows what will happen if there's another failed rainy season. We used to eat three meals a day, now we only eat two. Sometimes we go without food. The school needs fees. Right now, we can't afford it. I owe 55,000 shillings. We'll be asking for help from other people in the community. If I can't pay the school fees they'll have to just come and stay at home. We used to sell animals to pay for the school fees. Sometimes I just sit down, and I don't know what to do. I don't have the solutions. Everything has changed here. Everyone used to own livestock. If you walk around the village, you'll find many houses where they haven't eaten today. Mahad: My favourite subject is social studies. When I grow up, I want to be a teacher. I want to stay in school. Batulo* (mother): I worry about what will happen. We don't have any resources. Breastfeeding is becoming a problem. It's difficult when the baby wants to always feed more. But we don't have an option. (She has an eight-month-old baby). I'm so worried about my children. Especially because we don't have a hospital here. When one of them is sick all we can do is use "habag hagar". (The tree sap. its common name is gum Arabic). Tommy Trenchard/ Save the Children
More than two million children live in the arid and semi-arid regions of northern and eastern Kenya. An estimated 942,000 children aged under-5 and 135,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers are acutely malnourished and in need of treatment, up from 755,000 and 103,000 respectively since February this year.
Over 1.5 million cattle, that are vital for pastoralist communities to feed and support their families, have been wiped out by the drought in Kenya. As a result, children have little milk to keep them nourished and what animals have survived are too thin to sell for families to earn an income.
Millions have been plunged into poverty and families cannot afford to feed their children or send them to school. About 3.3 million children are at risk of dropping out of school in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. This has tripled in just three months.
Mahad*, 12, lives in a village in the north of Garissa County close to the border of Somalia with her mother and seven siblings. Her family lost hundreds of animals to the drought, and now are struggling to afford food and the fees to keep her in school. Their village has not seen rain for several years, and families are forced to dig into a dry riverbed in search of water.
Her father Hussein*, 45, said: “ We're still alive. We have not died yet. But only God knows what will happen if there is another failed rainy season. We used to eat three meals a day, now we only eat two. Sometimes we go without food.
“The school needs fees. Right now, we cannot afford it.... If I cannot pay the school fees they will have to just come and stay at home.”
Mahad*, said: “When I grow up, I want to be a teacher. I want to stay in school.”
Tasnim* lives in northern Garissa with her daughter and grandson, Garad* who is just six months old and is suffering from severe malnutrition. The family has suffered terribly as a result of the drought, losing almost all their livestock, which are the livelihood for millions of people in the region. She brought her grandson to the stabilisation center in a hospital in Garissa after her daughter fell ill and was unable to breastfeed him. Usually, they would turn to milk from the animals to feed their children, but most of their livestock have died, and the ones that remain are so malnourished that they no longer produce milk. The only food they have at home is porridge, and Garad* is too young to eat it. Garad* has been suffering from diarrhea for over two weeks now, and struggles to keep milk and other medicine down but is continuing to receive treatment at a Save the Children supported stabilisation clinic. Tasnim’s* story in her own words: I have been here for five nights because he is sick. He is used to animal milk and the animals dried up of milk. We used to have goats and cows but they died. Only a few remain and they don’t have any milk. When my daughter got sick and was taken to Garissa Hospital, this is when he became unwell. He was breastfeeding at the time when his mother got sick and that is why he got sick (malnourished). We only cook porridge at home that doesn’t contain any nutrients in it and he is not yet old enough to eat porridge. He has diarrhoea but he can’t take any medicine. I have even given him the medicine I was given but he threw up. It is nearly 20 days since his mother was admitted to the ward. But they are treating him now and the treatment is running smoothly. He is being given milk through an injection, but he hasn’t recovered and the diarrhoea hasn’t stopped. We are giving him medicine but he vomits immediately after it's given to him. He is one of the children who can't take the medicine. He is sick, he can’t eat anything.
Dualle*, 14, said since the cattle died his family has had nothing to eat. He and his four siblings go for days without food, and rely on their neighbours for support. Dualle* said young children are particularly impacted by the lack of milk from the animals and are susceptible to illness because they are so malnourished.
He said: “The cattle are dying and so people have nothing to eat. Some nights we don’t cook supper, then children stay hungry and the following day we ask for help from our neighbours who are better off. It's continuous, you can find you only cook food for three days and the remaining days you miss food.
“The young children cry a lot because they do not have anywhere to get milk... at times they sleep hungry. They can get any illness because they are malnourished and have no strength.
“My mother goes to the villagers and asks for help, that’s how my sister goes to school, and my mother must pay them back. At times she stays at home for months, because my mother cannot afford her school fees.”
When asked about the future for children, Dualle* said, “I pray we get rain by the mercy of God.”
Yvonne Arunga, Save the Children Country Director in Kenya said:
“These powerful photographs illustrate the disaster unfolding before our eyes. No child should go to bed hungry, be unable to afford to go to school or struggle to access clean water. Rising prices due to the war in Ukraine, climate change and the economic impact of COVID-19 have combined to create a hunger crisis on an unprecedented scale, putting the lives of millions of children at risk. With rains forecast to fail once again, time is running out for these children. The world must act now to prevent catastrophe.”
Save the Children and local partners are responding to the drought crisis in Northern Kenya and have so far reached 381,232 people including 204,691 children. We are providing cash assistance to affected households to enable them to buy food and non-food items such as water, we are also implementing nutrition interventions to ensure children under five years and pregnant and lactating mothers have access to screening and treatment for malnutrition and other childhood illnesses. In addition, Save the Children is providing water to households facing acute water shortages through water trucking and rehabilitation and solarization of boreholes as well as provision of livestock feeds and vaccination services to livestock in high-risk areas.
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Save the Children has been providing support to children in Kenya through our development and humanitarian programmes since 1950. We work with communities, local partners, and the government to design and deliver programmes to meet the needs of the most deprived children. We also advocate for greater investment of public and private resources for children.
We operate programmes in health and nutrition; food security and livelihoods; child protection; child rights governance; education; humanitarian response and adolescent rights.
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Daphnee Cook daphnee.cook@savethechildren.org / +254 717 524 904
Delfhin Mugo Delfhin.Mugo@savethechildren.org
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