Squeezing Water from a Stone

Today we went to visit, what I thought was, a really innovative project, which focuses on building capacity and creating assets within the rural regions of Kilifi, just north of Mombasa.

As you’ve read, Kenya is experiencing a staggering drought, which has left more than four million people hungry, and hundreds of thousands of cattle dead. For almost 80% of the country, the earth has turned to stone and dirt. The crops have withered, and for as far as the eye can see there is just brown, charred land. The “real” rains haven’t come in almost four years (Kenya is one of the top five countries on the planet suffering from the extreme effects of climate change).

When the first harvest failed, farmers could make do. When the second harvest failed, things became tough. When the third, and then the fourth harvest failed, there was nothing left to rely on, plummeting the people into a humanitarian disaster of massive proportion. The Masai people are bringing their cattle into Nairobi from the western hinterlands, because it’s the only place in southern Kenya with grass for their cattle to eat. Imagine if the farmers brought their cattle, by the thousands, to graze in NYC Central Park, because the farms and the yards and open space had dried up into dust.

WFP organized the women of Kilifi 10 months ago, and with engineers from World Vision, trained them to construct a “waterpan” (small reservoir) to serve as a water source for the community. Week after week, the women dug, hauled, and excavated, building a bowl to catch the scarce rainwater. And in the past week, some rain has come, filling the pan with a commodity more precious than gold in this ration.


And now their job is to maintain it. They have constructed a fence to keep the animals out, and a management system to ensure that this asset remains so.

WFP has paid these women with food over the last several months, and will continue to do so until the rains allow for crops to grow again. We had the good fortune of visiting a food distribution…

We bumped down the road, until, up in the distance, we saw a crowd of women, in their colorful sarongs and headwraps, with babies slung on their backs, gathering into a line (a rare thing – I’ve noticed that Africa doesn’t really seem to embrace the idea of cueing up… instead, people just cluster around and push push). Holding their food distribution cards, they first confirmed their identity and signed their name by providing a thumbprint (illiteracy is prevalent, and thumbprints are the only way to consistently provide secure ID). Hundreds of women then walked up the hill, with their purple stained thumbs, to the fenced area to claim their sacks of maize and CSB (corn soya blend). Each bag was weighed and measured, providing the woman with a month’s ration of food for her family. The women then hauled these bags, which much of weighed 50-60 pounds, onto their heads, and started the 5-10 mile journey home, with their babies still snoozing on their backs.

It was a moving sight to see these women streaming down the road for as far as the eye could see, with bags of food on their heads, as payment for their work. This project has been such a success, as WFP will be able to withdraw their involvement soon, and allow for the local community takeover of this initiative.