When we launched our Hunger Crisis Appeal to help families in the Horn of Africa meet their urgent needs, our supporters responded with overwhelming generosity. 

For years, the region has been caught in a severe drought that has left over 49 million people facing food insecurity, and over 11 million children under the age of five malnourished. Our local Christian Partners have longstanding relationships with communities impacted by this crisis, and needed funding to help the most vulnerable survive. 

Today, through your support, thousands of people in Kenya and Uganda can not only feed their families but continue to earn a livelihood, send their children to school, and plan for the future rather than simply being in survival mode.  

Here’s how you’re helping communities build their resilience. 

Treating Malnutrition In Uganda

In the Karamoja region of north-eastern Uganda, our Partner has so far provided 3,984 vulnerable people with healthcare services, food packages, sustainable agriculture and post-harvest training, and nutrition support for pregnant mothers, children, and teenagers. 

  • 708 people have received essential foods such as maize flour, iron-fortified beans, and cooking oil; 
  • 853 people have been treated for acute malnutrition; 
  • 40 community volunteers have been trained to refer and follow up malnourished children, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers for treatment; 
  • 607 people learned permaculture techniques and how to handle vegetables after harvest, so they can increase vegetable production at home and improve their family’s nutrition. 

This work has gone on to provide far-reaching benefits for an estimated 27,888 people in the community, as families are nourished and set up for life. 

Drought Response In Kenya

Our Christian Partner’s emergency drought response in Kenya has: 

  • Helped 17,806 people in the Makueni, Kitui and Garissa counties improve their nutrition with staples such as rice, beans, maize, nutrient-rich porridge, flour and cooking oil; 

Supplemented with local vegetables, these food supplies mean people can re-direct the time they usually spent searching for food into other income-generation activities, such as reviving their farms and looking after livestock. Children are able to regularly attend school, now they have enough food to be healthy and strong. 

Relief For Nala’s family  

Nala and her family live in an arid area of Kenya ravaged by drought. Their plot couldn’t sustain the family of six, so they moved off their farmland to find work in town. ‘We had not been able to harvest from our farm for the last three years due to a shortage of rains,’ Nala said. ‘Our children have not been getting proper nutrition, and the two who attend school have sometimes needed to stay at home and care for their siblings while we searched for casual labour to support the family.’      

Nala stands with her children outside their temporary home in town. Photo credit: Anglican Development Services Central Rift.

The family have been surviving on the wages Nala and her husband receive from their work making charcoal, a fuel used for household heating and cooking in Kenya. Every little bit they earned was needed to keep them alive.    

Thanks to your support, our local Christian Partner started a program to help vulnerable families meet their nutritional needs. Nala and her family were happy to receive a relief package of maize, beans, cooking oil, and salt. Additionally, Nala’s children are receiving breakfast and lunch at school through our Partner’s school food program. ‘We now enjoy three meals a day, unlike before when we could barely manage to get one meal a day,’ Nala said. 

Nala and her family are still displaced from their home, and would love to return one day when the drought ends. Until then, she’s grateful for the help she’s received from our Partner.  

‘Now I am able to save my wages from my casual work to assist me during time of need in the future,’ she said. ‘My children have also been able to go to school constantly since I am able to give them food without much struggle.’   

Thank you for supporting our Partners as together, we help families in the Horn of Africa not just survive this crisis, but plan for a better future.