Bus Of Hope

Kenya: Brides for Food

Girls Marry Early to get Food

Nthambi said it was becoming more and more tempting to send her 10-year-old daughter Kathina to Nairobi to work, or find someone to marry her.

Three years ago Nthambi had sent another daughter to Nairobi during difficult times. She ended up marrying a gas station attendant when she was 14 years old, much to her mother's dismay.

"Obviously, I'm sure the same thing will happen if I don't get some money," Nthambi says. "I am not happy, but there's nothing I can do about it."

Her daughter Kathina says she wants to continue her schooling and eventually become a teacher but worries the drought may rob her of that opportunity.

"Early marriage is bad. It's bad because children should go to school," she says.

Nthambi's mood improved a few hours later when she benefited from a World Vision food distribution, where she was able to collect a maize ration for each member of her family.

"Now the children will have something to eat. Because of the food distribution the children can go to school," she expresses with joy.
About 14 million people are suffering from hunger in East Africa, chiefly due to drought.

But it would be wrong to conclude that there is nothing you and I can do to help prepare communities for possible disaster. In this current crisis it has been heartening to see how many people have been able to survive — and even thrive — despite desperate circumstances.

An Oasis in the Desert

For example, the Turkana region of Kenya has been hit particularly hard by the drought, and tens of thousands of cows have died, leaving their owners without their sole source of daily food and means of providing for their families and futures.

Yet in the regions of Morulem and Lokubae, thousands of families are eating grain crops, vegetables and fruit thanks to an irrigation plan implemented by World Vision that has made an oasis in this desert.

In anarchic Somalia — a difficult place to manage large projects — World Vision staff and local farmers discussed a similar irrigation plan on the Juba River last year, following a flood. The aim was to control future flooding while also making provision for times of drought. Combined with seed distributions and training by agronomists, this project has turned families in Bu'aale into self-sufficient farmers. Contrast that with others in southern Somalia who are wandering the desert in a futile search for food and water.

Lessons Were Learned

The last great drought across the Horn of Africa, in the 1980s, is seared into our memories as the "Live Aid" famine. More than a million starving, displaced people filled Antsokia in central Ethiopia. Yet there were permanent swamps in Antsokia even then. A plan was developed by World Vision and its partners to use these swamps to irrigate dry areas. The Antsokia Valley, as a result, is now a place of successful intensive farming.

The city of Nairobi, Kenya is being invaded by herds of emaciated cattle who are razing parks and other green areas in search of food and water. Yet a mere two hours' drive deeper into the drought-affected Kenyan countryside reveals villages which are raising crops thanks to rainwater catchments and low-tech innovations such as drip irrigation. Water catchments help a community to use much more of the water that falls as rain, since borehole-based systems may deplete groundwater in time of drought.

Will It Be Enough?

During the current emergency, World Vision will be distributing food to save lives. Planning to help alleviate future crises will also be a top priority. The models successfully applied in the past are providing encouragement and evidence that change is possible on a wider scale.

Experience shows that where these projects have been successfully implemented, African villagers do not have to ask for food from outsiders every time the rains fail.

These projects may not be enough to save everyone in the Horn of Africa suffering in the current crisis. But they demonstrate that implementing a long-term plan can help communities diversify their food and water sources and prepare themselves for the future.