CBM Responds to Drought Crisis in Kenya

The current drought in the Horn of Africa is recognized to be the worst in the past 60 years. In Kenya alone, approximately 4 million people have been directly affected.

The crisis has resulted in an estimated 30,000 deaths of children under the age of five in the past three months. Although the famine has attracted much international aid to the Dadaab Refugee Camps, which are serving as a collection point for displaced people crossing over from war-ravaged Somalia into Kenya, the effects of the drought have had a cascading effect upon the entire region, impacting vulnerable communities throughout all of Northeast Province. These communities receive minimal support from the Kenyan government or other agencies currently focused on the refugee camps.

Canadian Baptist Ministries has been responding to the drought through our church partners in southern Kenya and Northeast Province. CBM's relief and development ministry, The Sharing Way has been working among the refugee population in Northeast Kenya to help address issues of food security, health and community development.

Villages north of the Tana River are in desperate need of immediate food aid and long-term support in food security to deal with the cyclical drought conditions of this semi-arid region of Kenya. We will continue working with existing partners to provide relief in the midst of severe drought in the region. Our current famine relief is targeting 7,000 people mostly living in the Sankuri Division of Garissa District. The main focus is nine daily feeding projects serving over a thousand children and expecting and lactating mothers. 

Presently, we are also preparing for the next phase of CBM's response focused on helping marginalized tribal communities become food secure. We are committed to helping nomadic communities of herdsmen transition into becoming more settled farmers along the Tana River, with the goal of establishing 60 cooperative farming projects. We are striving to mobilize and enable communities to adopt sustainable conservation farming practices in lands being allocated by the local government. 

Some other ways we are helping:

--Through our long-standing partnership with the Africa Brotherhood Church, food aid is being provided to those in need, particularly orphans, widows, children under five, peasant farmers and the elderly in eastern Kenya. 

--In partnership with Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB), CBM will help support Mennonite Central Committee's (MCC) Food For Work programs in Eastern Kenya. The goal is to provide food for community members that are currently working on the MCC/CFGB sand dam projects with the Utooni Development Organisation, so that they can continue this vital work through these drought conditions. Hungry members turning up to construct the sand dams have little energy to do the hard labor of hauling stones, digging ditches, and mixing cement. More than 25,000 people will benefit from distributions of maize, split peas and cooking oil over the next several months. The goal is the completion of sand dams and terraces that will increase the water available for people, animals, crops, fruit and vegetable production leading to long term food security.

Thank you for your generous gifts. You are helping to save lives in Northeast Kenya. Help support people in need during this drought crisis.  Donations can be made online or by calling 905-821-3533.  When giving online, select Emergency Relief from the first dropdown menu, then select Kenya Drought Relief from the second dropdown menu.