Why should we care about hunger around the world? Why are some families faced with starvation while others have plenty of food supply? These are questions that keep coming to mind whenever I watch the news on my television.
“Food is a basic vaccination against chaos. When you do not have food, you have increased unrest and conflict”.
The unrest and conflict among the Northern Kenya communities are greatly attributed to the harsh living conditions communities are experiencing. Cattle rustling has become a common norm, and whenever this happens, lives are lost in the quest of one community desiring to achieve what does not belong to them through this crude way of acquiring wealth. The jungle law is the survival of the fittest.
The matter has been even more complex with the current drought ravaging Baringo, Pokot, Turkana, and Samburu Counties. The fight to eliminate hunger entails measures beyond food banks and other emergency responses.
A reported case of two hungry children who cooked two chameleons got our attention, and we expanded on our normal operations to venture into food relief. Before the dust even settled on the chameleon’s story, another story came up of a mother who tried to provide hope for her hunger-stricken family by boiling stones so her children could feel that she was cooking something for them.
We partnered with a local NGO with transportation capacity to address problems like these. We purchased assorted food supplies and handed them over to trusted partners to deliver to starving families in Samburu.
This is short-term mitigation towards addressing hunger, but we strongly believe that our water security program, coupled with food security, can provide a lasting solution to these communities. The food we provided might have been enough to alleviate the problem entirely, but we are glad that we were able to save a life somewhere in that small way.
Eric Lijodi
Programs Manager
