Food Appeal towards Starving Population in Baringo

Napeleny Story of sorrow and hope

This is the report on our Food Appeal towards Starving Population in Baringo, Project #39426.

Hifadhi Africa team received Kes. 36,197.85 ($367.84) on 29^th April, 2019. This was an appeal to help donate Maize, Beans, Cooking Oil, Rice and logistical support towards the 800,000 population in Baringo County earmarked as under starvation by Kenyan Government due to drought. Nine people had been reported dead. The donated food was urgently needed to help the sickly, weak, and emaciated people. They lost their livestock in a six year running long drought.

Before leaving Nairobi for Baringo to donate the food, I placed further appeal to my 405 email subscribers through Mailchimp and to my almost 5000 Facebook followers. While we did not receive any feedback via email (we understood there was donor fatigue after our previous successful fundraising on GlobalGiving platform). 19 Kenyans responded on the Facebook posts and committed to travel with us. Our message on Facebook was only for people to travel with us but pay for their expenses. We knew that if we are successful in enticing fellow Kenyans into going to Baringo, they will see the starvation problem forehand and advocate on behalf of the Pokot community to the government and the outside world. They were ordinary Kenyans from all walks of lives. The reason we did all these was because of the immensity of the need in East Pokot. We contacted the authorities to inform them that we are adopting a village. We told them that we will not only carry Maize, Beans, Cooking Oil, we will also commit ourselves for a year to fix the issues such that this never happens again in that village. #NEVERAGAIN became our purpose and mission.

On 10^th May, 2019 at 10:00p.m, our caravan of volunteers started our 7 hours travel to East Pokot. With $368 at hand, we managed to procure 18 bags of maize of 90 kilos each. We decided to adopt one village called Napeleny in Kokwo Toto Sub-Location, Orus Location, Tangulbei Division, East Pokot Sub-County in Baringo County. The reason we chose this village was because it was among the extremely affected zones by drought earmarked by Hifadhi Africa. Other villages include Nasurut, Nabukut, Achurur and Adomeyon. Napeleny has a population of 506 people.

We were extremely lucky to receive more donations from those individuals who registered to travel with us as volunteers. One of them is Mark. Mark is an outspoken national Television Analyst who had never been to Baringo. He watched the drought menace and how co-patriots were dying due to starvation. When we made the clarion call, Mark heeded. He also recruited 18 others to come with him. They further mobilized local friends and companies to donated sixty pair of children shoes, a scholarship award to one bright but needy student and allowance fee for the driver. They paid all transportation costs from Nairobi to East Pokot and back. They further brought with them sleeping tents that we used in Napeleny village. There are no hotels or lodgings in Napeleny. With food and water as priority, the locals live in stick, temporary houses which they abandon when they move to another location. They are scattered throughout because they cannot sustain themselves in communities. They are pastoralists who move their animals to wherever there is vegetation. So it made it uneasy to mobilize the sickly, weak and emaciated people to come to the distribution points. We had to travel into the area and slept there in the tents and sleeping bags provided by Mark and his team of volunteers.   

Itemized Budget

Items

Description

Unit Price

Total Amount

Donors

Maize 90 KG 18 bags @2000, total 36000. Donations through GlobalGiving

Maize 90KG 12 bags @2000, total 24000. Donations from Mark and other Kenyans

Maize Transportation Truck Hire and Fuel from Nakuru, lumpsum 15000. Donations from Hifadhi Africa

Driver Allowance Food and Accommodation, lumpsum 300.0 Donations from Mark and other Kenyans

Sport Shoes Children shoes 60 Pairs (amount not stated). Donations from a Kenyan company through Mark

Scholarship Award Tuition Fee payment, lumpsum 60000. Donation from Mark and his wife

Volunteers Transportation Transport from Nairobi including driver allowance 3 Days @15000 total 45000. Payment of expenses by each traveling volunteer

Total Kes. 183, 001 (approx. $1,830).

At night while chatting with area Chief and his assistant, we told them to mobilize locals to come for maize distribution early in the morning. We told them that we also had packaged maize flour for pregnant women and lactating mothers. Plus milk and energy drinks for those emancipated and may not directly take maize. We also carried painkillers and other over the counter drugs from Hifadhi Africa. The following morning, we took breakfast and mobilized locals. We could hear them calling each other. Middle aged men were sent by the elders to call the others. They knew each household members and could not allow distribution until everyone was present.  

Collins and the dying woman

In the midst of maize distribution, we were approached by the two Chiefs and 2 locals. They told us of an old dying woman not far away. They were asking me to allow another community member to take maize ration for her. Normally, you wouldn’t let one person take shares equaling two people. This is to ensure that everyone gets maize. So they approached me to explain her case. I said yes. I asked to be taken to the woman’s place. I was shocked by the, “dying woman” part. I took an empty sack and filled it with maize. Then I called a motorcycle nearby.  

Mark Bichachi and I took the motorcycle through unassailable routs and into the heart of Kokwo Toto village to bring food and energy boosting to this mother. When we reached the compound, we called and called without respond and when we saw her lying down with no movement, we thought she was already lifeless. We rushed in. She stays alone. She told us she took porridge days before (more than 50 hours before our arrival) and that was it. She was weak and couldn't stand nor sit down. We gave her energy drinks and milk to drink. She started sweating profusely. She collected herself, sat down and asked who we were. She thanked God for our coming and said she had been left to waste away. We gave her chapatis and money to mill her maize. We told her that we'll pay for bodaboda (motorcycle) to bring her sugar, more milk, and flour among other food stuff. The bodaboda will also take her maize for milling and return so she can cook ugali. She did not have the strength to chew boiled maize. We told her that we had come from Nairobi and had to go back because it is far. She said she had seen picture of a human being on an old newspaper when she was young (many years ago). She said she was convinced that must be Nairobi. She asked us if God heard her cries and send help from Nairobi. We said yes.   

This was her first meal in days. There are many stories to tell. But let this picture speak for itself. We promised her that we’ll would come back. A promise we intended to keep... whether we will find her alive was the question... This is the situation for the elderly and breastfeeding mothers in East Pokot. People are dying and we need any support we can get to reach them and save lives.

After visiting the woman above, we were told of other aged weak people. We took another motorcycle – heading another direction but with the same mission of saving another life. When we visited photographed old men below, they were in the verge of dying from dehydration and starvation. We can't get over the fact that we didn't have enough. But we managed to give them water mixed with glucose and milk.  

When we returned to the village weeks later, we made sure to visit the woman who had been left to dying in her hut. We had promised her that we would come. So we went. When we arrived on her compound, we called. I saw her positioning herself to sit from an outside shade. She wasn’t in the house like the last time. She was alert to the noise our feet made while walking. We went to meet her. I greeted her in Pokot language. She responded and gave me her hand to shake. I asked her whether she had eaten and she showed me cold tea a neighbor made in the 5 hours ago. “I take them in sips" she tells me. There were dead flies on it. I asked what else and she showed me water she was supposed to drink. “I live by these”. The water wasn’t clean enough for drinking. But it was water because in Napeleny village, people need water regardless of the quality.  

She was fine. She was able to walk again and she was on the mend. Some good news! She reminded me of her words, "did God hear me and send help from Nairobi?" The answer is yes. We are debtors of love we owe her. Our debt to her is not yet paid. We are planning our next visit for August. We need to get them water tanks and foot pumps so they can fill these tanks with the seasonal rivers' waters nearby.

Children Shoes Distributed Photos

Because of you generous donations, the team that traveled to Kokwo Toto in East Pokot managed to distribute shoes to children of Napeleny Village. How awesome can it get when we come together?

The return journey

In the second travel to Napeleny, we trained locals to farm in anticipation of the July long rains. We donated hoes, mattocks and fork jembes. It was interesting to watch people who hardly dig learn how to dig farms and water pans. Our target was to dig one pan that would harvest rainwater and the villagers will channel water from to their farms. The villagers have dug a grand total of 46 pans! We made wide and shallow ones hoping to avoid accidents. It rained and all the pans are full.

But before all the above travel and exercise, we paid a visit to a demonstrative farm in Yatta, 147.2 km from Nairobi, to find out how they have dealt with the harsh climate and water scarcity. We found that many homestead had dug these things called silangas or water pans. The one shown below had kept water in it since October last year. The owner said he has had these dug since 1999. 

We planned to apply this approach in our adoptive village of Napeleny. It became step one of the many ideas we have to try and bring water to this village. Locals at Napeleny dug them with their bare hand. We did not pay them money or maize because we had run out of money and maize. 46 pans have been dug by now and full of water. The next task is to support each household to dig its own pan. By the end of this exercise we hope that the village will be water secure in the spirit of #NeverAgain.

We need to take some agriculture experts to teach them how to take advantage of the short rains and plant crops that will not take long to grow. We also need to teach them to dry their produce using solar dryers so that they can have something to eat in the dry season. We need to reintroduce smoked meat so that they can have some to eat in the hard times. We also need to do a commodity exchange where they can bring their curios and goats in exchange for services such as a clinic and a school. This will not only help them join Kenya's economy but will also make the project self-sustaining. They have brilliant artwork and bead work.

Media Attention

We took our cameramen and women with us to Napeleny and producedthe 29:55 minutes video on YouTube, titled Napeleny Village Documentary. The documentary attracted nationwide conversation on negative implications of adverse weather conditions, how pastoral communities lack early warning and preparedness measures to cushion them from such recurrently shocks and further on possible sustainable efforts to mitigate against the risks and help these populations to quickly bounce back. We highly recommended that the documentary be viewed. Check the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOZIrO36__g

Comments posted on social media regarding the documentary

      Alan from Arizona, USA: Your eyes see for me. Your words explain to me. Your actions show me. I’m so proud of you brother.

      Roxanne from Washington State, USA: Thank you Hifadhi Africa for enlightening our community on how we can help.

      John from Nairobi, Kenya: This is heartbreaking, next time you are going please let me know I share the little I have. Keep doing it for humanity.

Mark crying on live TV Interview

Mark appeared on a national TV in Kenya called KTN. He emotionally reflected on what we went through and saw in Napeleny Village. The video link provided is 3:28 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpg83WPALPk

Comments posted on the TV Interview

      So heartbreaking... watching emotions overwhelm you shows how much we as a country havefailed by politicizing everything

Most popular photo on social media circles

“We met another beautiful new friend. It was unfortunate that we could not converse because she doesn't understand Swahili at all. Never seen the doors of school.”

      So apparently young girls with this hairstyle are those who don't go to school. And they were quite a number.

      It's unfortunate that she and many others shall not get an equal chance to compete for opportunities in life for lacking an education. Let's do the little we can to change the situation.

N/B: 60% of Pokot children never attend school ever in their lifetime.

The fun in community work

We had fun even when we knew sadness and resilient faces awaited us with their last breath. We kept our spirit high.

• Napeleny_Story_of_sorrow_and_hope.pdf (PDF)