Here is one mother’s testimony and plea for help from the front lines of the current food crisis in Ethiopia. According to the government, at least 400,000 children are suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition, a form of malnutrition that, if survived, will impact their growth and development and will likely determine both their physical and cognitive abilities as adolescents and adults.
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I’ve lived in Africa long enough to watch some kids grow up. I’ve seen a boy struggle with the effects of HIV through his formative years only to succumb to it at the age of twenty. But I’ve also seen an orphan rise to the top of his class, graduate university and go on to be the owner of a successful business. With so many of the children that I encounter here each day, I can’t help but wonder what will become of them in ten or twenty years. Emali, Kenya is divided by the Nairobi – Mombasa highway. It’s not only a physical boundary, but a geographic one as well. The south side of the road marks the boundary of the blistering, flat planes, home to the Maasai tribe, that receive little if any rain at all during the year. The north side marks the beginning of the hills[…]
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Farmland that had reverted to dust after years of drought is being reclaimed through innovative methods. Thanks to Matemai Mbira Group of Harare, Zimbabwe for the use of their beautiful music in this piece.
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Want to know what real hunger is like? Don’t ask an American. The video below, narrated by Sevu, a small farmer in Kenya, gives the most poignant description of hunger I’ve ever heard. Luckily, that’s not all this video is about. It used to be that the seasonal river that runs through Sevu’s village would quickly become dry again a few days after the rain. Now, however, a series of small sand dams stationed throughout its course have kept the river flowing and have allowed Sevu and his family to farm year-round, thereby increasing their income and access to food. Sevu and the family are doing so well now, in fact, that he was able to place an international phone call to me yesterday just to see how my wife and I are doing. The dams are part of a larger program introduced in the area by Lutheran World Relief to[…]
Read MoreA more somber side of Kenya’s drought in the Turkana Region compared to my last entry… and a bit of the relief effort by ChildFund. Some more of my video work on the crisis:
Read MoreMany have heard about the horrific drought that is gripping the Horn of Africa right now. I’ve been spending a lot of time in Kenya’s Turkana Region documenting the situation and the relief efforts there. In Turkana the UN has declared a food Crisis: one step below a Famine but one above an Emergency. While I have plenty of images that depict the crisis, today we’ll focus on the positive – the long-term food security projects of ChildFund and the World Food Programme in Turkana, known as Food for Assets. Click play above for a full explanation. The Food For Assets program works to coerce those Turkana living in irrigable areas to learn sustainable farming practices by making the food aid they receive contingent upon their enrollment in the program. It is the hope of implementing partners that after one year of learning, people who have received the training will[…]
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