NBC Nightly News focused on rising temperatures and drought in Kenya last night with a report from the field. Severe, prolonged drought has left the land parched and unable to sustain the animals that many Kenyans rely on for food and income. Some farmers have even begun leading their cattle into the capitol city of Nairobi, where there is more grass. Conflict is also on the rise - one man interviewed by NBC was recently attacked by a rival tribe who wanted his land. Read a companion article to the video here.
-Alli Bailey
Communications Assistant
Friends of WFP
P.P.S. Support WFP with the Regift the Fruitcake campaign! Read our blog post here to find out how you can help feed the hungry with a virtual fruitcake.
This past November, eight strong, independent women ranging in
ages from 25 to 70 ventured to Kenya and
saw firsthand everything that the women of Kibera, Mombasa and Kilifi do to
support their families.In the evenings,
after long days of visiting program sites, we had to ask ourselves, Where does gender empowerment start? We
concluded that the word “empowerment” simply cannot exist without the
realization that you can be
empowered.
Imagine about 1 million people living on a piece of land the size of New York City’s Central Park. Then imagine that same place with limited running water, with no sewage system, a place where less than once fifth of houses have electricity, a place where animals and trash fill the muddy alleyways. Then imagine that in the middle of that you peek down an alleyway and see some old grain bags filled with dirt, where green leaves are just starting to sprout. You are inside Kibera. And inside Kibera these mini gardens are starting to crop up as people try to grow something from nothing.
The first week of November, eight people traveled together to Kenya to witness WFP operations on the ground. Towards the end of the visit, the group went to Kibera, said to be Africa's largest slum. In reality, measuring the number of people inside is an estimate at best with no census to record population. Trying to estimate facilities inside Kibera also proves difficult – data suggests that one latrine (a hole in the ground) is shared by up to 50 homes. More often Kibera is known for the “flying toilet,” whereby plastic bags are thrown onto rooftops in the hopes of being forgotten. As we walked through Kibera on a gray rainy day when everything had turned to slush, you see that the ground is layers upon layers of plastic bags decomposing, the bags having long slid down from the tin roofs.
Kibera is home to many, and yet it is a place the outside world cannot visualize. Our group was escorted into Kibera to visit a clinic, a school and a couple homes with staff of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). With us were four armed guards. One weekend prior to our visit, riots inside Kibera had resulted in a couple deaths and we were advised to be cautious as we entered a world not our own.
Making a life inside Kibera is not easy. One WFP staffer estimated that 70 percent of Kibera residents do not have a regular wage to rely on, meaning that most of the population is unemployed. The women we met spoke of looking for jobs as clothes washers, knocking on doors offering their services. In the winter months, they say work becomes increasingly difficult as the cold water makes their hands ache. And, if they suffer from HIV/AIDS, then they are even less likely to be able to work as their bodies become weak with pain.
Most of the homes are about 10x10 feet, made of mud walls with corrugated tin roofs. The average house will sleep 10 people. Interestingly, even though this land is government owned, there are landlords inside Kibera who stop by to pick up their dues. Monthly rent might be about $2.50 a month and almost everyone runs behind on his or her payments since they are unable to find work. One little boy came home saying he had been asked to leave school after being unable to pay his dues for the last 3 months, dues of 60 cents a month.
The most dramatic part of this visit was realizing the reality of urban poverty. Kibera is built into a valley, and from the tops of the hills you can look across to middle-income homes in Nairobi. Every day there is a reminder for these people of the haves and have not’s. Yet, there in those old grain bags, gardens are starting as people try to grow food for themselves. This is one tiny ray of hope inside a place I still cannot quite fathom. Never before has the reality of food or no food been more starkly in my mind as we enter the Thanksgiving week.
See what Kibera looks like with CSIS’s Commission on Smart Global Health.
-Jessica Alatorre Outreach Associate Friends of WFP
Earlier this afternoon here at Friends of the World Food
Program (Friends of WFP), I was able to participate in a United Nations World
Food Program (WFP) Behind the Scenes: Live from Kenya conference call. While we
have all read about hunger in the news and have formed vague ideas about global
hunger issues, two Friends of WFP colleagues and six WFP Committee volunteers have
encountered, firsthand, the serious problems that face over 1 billion people in
the world today.
The call began with staggering statistics: WFP is currently
trying to reach around 4 million people affected by the drought in Kenya; over
42 percent of Kenya’s population lives on less than $1 per day; the Somali
refugee population increases by approximately 6,000 people per month; in one
HIV/AIDS clinic the group visited, there are 7,000 patients, with an
approximated 5 percent increase per year. The numbers are enormous. Yet what
does this all actually look like?
Our friends in the field were able to help paint the
sobering picture in our minds. They visited WFP School Meals programs and saw
how necessary the meals provided by the schools are to the children who receive
them. For many of these children, a school meal is the only meal they receive
each day. While this is a very sad realization, that one meal has helped
improve the children’s qualities of life. It also goes a long way in promoting
education. When meals are guaranteed, parents have more of an incentive to send
their children to school instead of keeping them at home to work. This is
especially true for girls. As we heard from our representatives in the field,
this realization is bittersweet.
While the call set a serious tone, it was not without its
breakthrough moments. Children at one of the schools the group visited had set
up their own inventive system to wash their hands before meals because the
school could not afford running water. In another area, a water pan project was
created as part of a community initiative. Women from nearby villages dug the
pan to capture rain water. In exchange for their labor, WFP provides these
women with food. This is known as WFP’s Food for Work/Food for Training Program.The
water can now be used for basic daily needs in a time where drought is a main
concern. Our representatives were enthusiastic about the promise that these
projects show for the future.
On the other side of the call, sitting around the conference
room table, each employee of Friends of WFP had a serious look on their face.
The wheels were churning about what the next step might be for us and how we
could do more than what we’re doing right now. It is the real experiences of
our colleagues and volunteers that help fuel the efforts of these programs. It
is the stories they will bring home to share that will empower more people to
take the initiative for change and to become passionate about the issues raised
by global hunger. For me, the next step was writing this post to organize my
thoughts and to encourage people to join in the movement.
To learn even more about the trip to Kenya,
please read the blog posts that precede mine. They are full of amazing stories
that help bring the idea of world hunger closer to home with firsthand accounts
and conversations with WFP recipients. They are truly humbling.
The ports of Mombasa, Kenya are among the most strategic in the world for WFP. Ships arrive, bearing food for WFP programs in Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.
WFP rents warehouses, patrolled by armed security to prevent theivery, which are big as a football field, 3-4 stories high. One warehouse room holds enough food to feed more than two million people.
Margot Hoerrner Vice President of Outreach Friends of the World Food Program WFP Committee Trip to the Field, Kenya - November, 2009
On Wednesday, we arrived at our first school meals program in an urban environment. One of the goals of this trip was to observe several different school meals programs and determine the main differences between the rural and urban feeding programs. Pulling into the school, I noticed several children waiting to greet us. The smile on a child’s face as they see a WFP truck pull up is indescribable.
Mukindani Primary School currently has 1,553 students, of which 100 of them are in preschool. These children come from a radius that encompasses five surrounding slums. Most students have to walk as many as 5 kilometers each way every day to reach the school. The school consists of only 20 classrooms for all of the students. One of the main reasons that children attend school is because they can be assured that they will receive a hot meal; often their only meal of the day.
The World Food Program works with an organization called Feed the Children. The job of this organization is to visit with schools that house the most vulnerable children, monitor the attendance of these schools and work so that children are being fed and attending school regularly.
Many of the children were talking and laughing as we got out of the vehicles. We were greeted by the head teacher and invited into the main office. The office was dark and crowded. We began discussing the problems that are faced at Mukindani. The school is currently on a short-term school meals program that is used only in emergency situations. The program was implemented at this school because the droughts made it impossible for the children to receive food elsewhere. Kenya has experienced a drought that has compromised the last four harvest cycles. With the recent rains, the country may now begin to develop new harvests for food in the near future. It is for this reason that the program will cut funding and assistance to this school within the month of November.
As we finished the meeting, we were asked to join the students for a special presentation in the courtyard. The mass of students began swaying and singing a wonderful song of welcome. When they finished, Friends of WFP was able to engage the children in discussion and activity. I began taking pictures of the children around me. I noticed that the children were absolutely fascinated with the sight of their own picture. Many of these children had never seen themselves before.
I began speaking with a young girl about her life in the Mombasa slums. Her name was Caroline and she was nine years old. She has one younger brother but he is too young to attend school with her. Caroline arrives at school at 6:30am and does not return home until 6:45pm. During the day she learns many different subjects including English, math, science and art. She informed me that the school meals program has helped her immensely. She is now able to concentrate and study hard so that she may one day rise above poverty and achieve success.
Touring the kitchen was one of the harder things to do. It was almost barren with a large silver caldron for mixing the supplemental food. I asked how many bags of food it took to feed all of the children at the school for one day and I was told that it takes four bags to properly serve the children. Unfortunately, with the closing of the program in the near future, the administration has had to cut down on the amount of food that can be served. The new ration is now three bags for all 1500+ students. This decision was made to try and stretch the food out as long as possible.
Right before we left the slums, the children came into the courtyard to wish us well. There was such a difference in the urban schools verses the rural school programs. In the rural areas, the children are well behaved and disciplined rather than those in the urban environment. The attendance rate in rural schools is very high and the children are healthy and happy. In the 1980’s, the rural schools had implemented the program because the families could not easily find employment. However, the children in the slums have only had the program temporarily and parents of the students are expected to find employment that will allow them to support their family. Also, children in the urban environments tend to me more rowdy and less disciplined.
After speaking with the head teacher, I was informed that since the program began at Mukindani, the attendance rates have increased and the children have become more focused in class. School meals programs are highly effective ways to increase a child’s attendance, help them focus and ensure that they are being properly fed and cared for. The children at this primary school made me realize the impact that the school meals program can have on a child’s life.
Having only one week to spend in Kenya, Friends of WFP needed to be able to fit several program visits into a couple of days. We flew from Nairobi to Mombasa on Monday afternoon and remained in Mombasa visiting programs until Wednesday evening.
When we arrived in Mombasa, we were greeted by David Kamau, Head of the WFP Satellite Office for Mombasa. David was extremely informative and also happened to be one of the nicest men I have ever met. I learned that David would be our guide through several programs in the area.
On Tuesday morning, a WFP convoy picked us up at our hotel and we began our journey into the rural area near Kilifi. David informed us that we would be visiting a couple of Food for Asset programs. Food for Assets is a type of food assistance program that helps contribute to sustainable development. At this program, WFP worked in conjunction with World Vision, an international nonprofit organization that focuses on community assets that enhance food security. The areas of focus for the afternoon included a water pan (reservoir) and a community farm project, both of which implemented a rainwater harvesting technique.
The water pan took five months to construct and is three meters deep. Around the pan, a fence was built to keep livestock from drinking the water. The women in villages from as far as five kilometers away spent many hours constructing the water pan. In return, they received food for their contribution to the sustainability of the population in the area. The water could be used for cooking, drinking (if boiled) and for irrigation.
Later that afternoon, we visited a farm in the Ndugumnani community. WFP and World Vision had to receive the consent of the community before beginning to plant. The farm was developed in June of 2009 and will be harvested in 90 days. This harvest will target 323 households in the surrounding area.
The community farm utilizes rainwater that is irrigated into pits. The shape of the pit is conducive to rainwater collection. Each person working on the program is responsible for five or six pits. Ultimately, the goal is to have over 40,000 pits. The workers are only allowed to work for 2-3 hours at most. This allows the community to maintain other responsibilities such as cooking, cleaning and raising their children. The farm takes up 18 acres and when harvested, will produce upwards of 80 metric tons of food.
After seeing these programs in action, I am better able to understand the objectives of sustainability. This program is extremely important to the efforts of WFP. Not only does WFP work to make sure that people are taken care of in emergency situations, but it also recognizes the fact that if the goal of ending global hunger is to be successful, the populations facing food security issues must be able to sustain themselves.
Today, among our other program visits, we had the pleasure
of visiting a rural school meals program outside of Kilifi town. While the
countryside is beautiful, the road to the school was long and often bumpy. At
times pools of water filled a portion of the path, but our driver was extremely
skilled.When we reached our
destination, we were welcomed by a sea of students in colorful school uniforms.
Larger than life, they greeted us with a lively song accompanied by clapping.
The headmistress stood at the front of the students and formally greeted us.
After we distributed the small gifts we had brought along
with us - stickers, pencils and pads of paper, among other things - we headed to
the center of the school property. It was here where I really noticed the
enormity of the school’s student body: approximately 1,200 students in grades one through eight. We took 10 to 15 minutes to chat with the kids and snap
photos. They marveled at seeing themselves through the screens of our digital cameras.
At one point, the action shifted to the school meals program setting up in the corner.The
program, which includes a hot lunch for all of the 1,200-plus students on a
daily basis, was about to begin. The families of many students rely on an inconsistent agricultural income, which has made this a long lasting feeding program, dating back to the 1980s. Along with many other committee volunteers and
the Friends of WFP staff, I had the opportunity to serve
lunch, which consisted of maize and a vegetable oil mixture, to several
students.I would have to say that this
experience has been one of the most meaningful of the trip so far. Images of
the “little red cup” fill WFP literature. The cup I received after officially
becoming a committee member still sits on my dresser back in Indiana. To actually see the school meals program
in action and to actually serve food to the kids brings immeasurable meaning to
my role as committee member. I also more fully understand the impact of WFP
programs.
We were eventually asked to gather in the center of the
property where chairs had been placed in a circle. The teachers informed us
that the students had prepared a presentation or “show” for us. The students
recited poems that conveyed their appreciation for the school meals program.
I have rarely seen poems delivered with such eloquence and emotion. Benefits of
the school meals program were mentioned throughout the performance. Attendance is up, the kids are healthier,
grades have improved and everyone is generally much happier as a result of the
program.
Shortly after the poems, the mothers of some of the students
performed a dance for us. It was lively and upbeat and we were eventually asked
to join in! Shortly after the dance, we said our goodbyes. We shook hands with
the kids and they followed us out to the WFP vans. We were tired from the visits
of the day, but were certainly thankful for all the people we met and what was
certainly a very special visit.
On Tuesday, we visited a food distribution center in MWAHERA, where women from the surrounding area were picking up food provided by the World Food Program. Samuel Mwangi is the field coordinator for this distribution and he explained the process to me. Prior to distribution, there is a pre-meeting with all the beneficiaries. Then, the process of distribution the food begins and it takes about an hour. The food was delivered that morning and has already been set into piles. The food is distributed to the women of the community to ensure that it will get home to feed the family and all the children of the family. The women are then put in groups of 10 and within these groups, they distribute the food by opening the WFP bags and moving the food into their own containers to take home. Each beneficiary also has a card and a thumbprint which are used for identification.
Seeing the process firsthand was an experience I will not soon forget. It was extremely organized and went very smoothly. Considering the amount of need in this area due to the drought which has caused crop failure for several seasons now, I was expecting quite a different scene of the arrival of all the food. That was not the case at all. After leaving this particular distribution center, we passed two others. The entire area was receiving food that day. Later in the day, we also saw all the women walking home carrying the bags and walking as much as two hours each way to get home from the distribution center.
Today we visited a school located in the slums of Nairobi. Kibera, as the slums are called, is a community with its own police station and more than 200 schools. Over 1 million people live within a 1.5 square mile radius. A large percentage of its inhabitants are children (probably more than half, as many are orphans).
Walking through Kibera is fascinating. Lively music blares from speakers hidden in little huts. Stalls offer all sorts of items for sale. Clothes and plastic sandals, fruits and vegetables and tasty little snacks (fried potatoes and sugarcane) can be purchased within the walls of these slums. Chickens, cats and dogs roam freely. It is chaotic, but Kibera is vibrant and in a strange way is welcoming to its visitors.
It had rained heavily the night before our visit. The path was muddy and slippery. It was quite a challenge to walk around. Flying toilet bags (the name says it all) were scattered everywhere. Corrugated tin roofs were our only support. Luckily, none of us slipped or fell in that muddy mess. Four armed guards escorted us wherever we ventured.
After a visit to an HIV/AIDS Center, we made our way to Stara Resource Center and School. Stara has over 530 students, and 53 percent of them are females. 70 percent of the children are orphans, 15 percent have only one parent and the remainder are neglected. Nearly 330 of the children have been screened, and 10 percent of them have tested positive for HIV/AIDS. The school has 13 teachers and two social workers.
The Center started in 1998 as a woman's cooperative and started with six children looking for food. In 2004, the World Food Program implemented its school meals program and enrollment rocketed from 200 to its current number. By providing a meal for children (consisting of maize and pulses cooked in palm oil), attendance and school performance increased significantly. Many of these children have no other source of food and the school meal is the only thing they will eat all day. As you can imagine, food is a strong incentive for the children to attend school.
The Center tries to involve parents, particularly the mothers. They are encouraged to make crafts (such as beaded necklaces) and sell them to visitors. All proceeds are invested back into the school.
Staff from the World Food Program (which provides the food) and Feed the Children (which implements the school meals program) monitors the distribution of food and conducts monthly inspections to ensure that standards are being met.
The benefits of the school meals program are evident. Children attend the school so they can eat. With a full belly, they can concentrate better on their schoolwork. By staying in school, the children stay off the streets and out of trouble.
It’s hard for us back home to fully understand how important the school meals program is to the school and to these children. Visiting Stara School has allowed me to witness it firsthand. I only wish more people could see it as well. Only then would they realize how truly blessed we are because we don't have to worry about our next meal.
After this trip, I won't complain about my weight again! I consider myself lucky to have that extra meat on my bones.
