Food Security Kenya Project #48011

Kenya, East Africa Emergency Food Distribution

by Springs of Hope Foundation

Project Report | Aug 10, 2023
A report on our weekly food hamper recipients

By Jennifer Hughes-Bystrom | Founder/CEO

Springs of Hope Foundation's Kijiji Mission Project, visited Murogi slums on the outskirts of Nakuru City to do a food distribution today. Most of the people living in the slums don’t have jobs. They depend on casual work, which is rare to come by these days with the high cost of living. The elderly have no one to look after them as their children left to look for greener pastures in other towns. The group was anxiously waiting for our arrival and were more than grateful for our visit. They told us that most of them had no food in their homes and some had spent days on an empty stomach. Some elderly sent their grandchildren to collect the food on their behalf as they were bedridden. Pastor Ben organized the venue at a good-hearted lady’s homestead. Ivy our volunteer together with Antoinette did the distribution and all went on well as planned. All thanked the hands that giveth and asked us to visit them more often.

We are so grateful to you, our generous supporters for making our food distributions possible. Whether it’s doing our larger distributions to the more remote areas of Kenya or just reaching out to 90 of our elderly, disabled, or single moms, our neighbors in the surrounding slums. I would like to say a huge Asante Sana for your generous, continued support of our work at the Springs of Hope Foundation.

Warmest blessings,

Jennifer Hughes-Bystrom

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Apr 19, 2023
A report on our weekly food hamper recipients

By Jennifer Hughes | Founder/CEO

One of this weeks food hamper recipients

Jambo, Greetings,

Last Weekend Springs of Hope Foundation traveled to the border district of Mogotio, Baringo County to distribute food hampers to the elderly and vulnerable within two communities. Joining us for the distribution were Ivy, one of our volunteers who comes to our center every Tuesday afternoon to teach our students a course in business and financial management, and Elizabeth, a recent graduate of our 12-month tailoring course who is being mentored to become an assistant to our administration manager and our teacher Martha. Our first stop was at a center known as Barina, which is an internally displaced person center. We found the group anxiously waiting for us. We distributed food hampers and washable sanitary pads to the women and teen girls. One elderly lady said there are families that have slept hungry for days and are very grateful that they will have something on their table that evening and for weeks to come. We then drove another 10 km to the second village known as Sawaiti, where we distributed the remaining food hampers to the anxiously waiting crowd. They came out in numbers and although we had prepared 90 hampers for this village, some still missed out. They were very grateful for our visit and thanked and prayed for the hands contributing to the food and sanitary pads. The fact that whatever food is available in the market has doubled in price, combined with the lack of fieldwork over the past 4 years due to drought has made it difficult for many of our food hamper recipients to be able to purchase food.

Families were tending to their plots as we drove past small family farms on our way to Baringo County, which, after 4 years of drought and failed crops is a very good sign. With the rains at hand, they have started planting beans and maize. Unfortunately, the maize won’t be ready to harvest until September, which will still cause an interim shortage of two of Kenya’s most vital food sources, maize (corn) and beans. We’re praying that the rain will continue.

I wish you could experience the great joy your kindness brings to our elderly and very needy food hamper recipients in person. These are the forgotten villages that larger aid organizations are not able to reach.

Asante Sana,

Thank you,

Warmest blessings,

Jennifer, Antoinette, Martha, and our team of great volunteers at

www.springsofhopefoundation.org

PS. If you’ve ever thought about volunteering in Kenya, spending time visiting our breathtaking game parks, and participating in some of our projects, if you would like more information please email me at jenniferhughes@springsofhopefoundation.org.

This woman had been collecting firewood all day.

Some mom's & kids at this weeks food distribution

Giving washable sanitary kits to the women & girls

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Mar 7, 2023
Our most recent food relief distribution to West Pokot & Turkana counties, Kenya.

By Antoinette Hoareau | Project Administration Manager

Some of out Turkana recipients

Following four successive failed rainy seasons, Kenya is amid the worst drought in 40 years. Crops have failed for the 4th season in a row, causing what little food there is available to be prohibitively out of reach for many struggling families. River beds have dried up in Northern Kenya, resulting in both wild and domestic livestock dying. Here is our Nakuru project manager's unedited report of our most recent food distribution to West Pokot and Turkana counties.

Hello Everyone,

Earlier this month Springs of Hope Foundation loaded two pickup trucks of food hampers to be transported by courier to Kapenguria, West Pokot, and Lodwar, Turkana. Our team led by myself, Administration Manager, Antoinette Hoareau accompanied by Nelson Kanandi and Joseph Lotukoi who are both medics departed the following day via matatu, spending the first night at Kapenguria and then proceeding to Lodwar, Turkana County the following morning. We attended a church service at KAG in Lodwar town and then Bishop Wilson Lokaale drove us into Nakaparan village, Turkana Central, 50 kilometers away to distribute our food hampers to the elderly, the disabled, and the vulnerable families, who do not know where their next meal will come from. They have several rivers running across their land, but all are dried up as they have not had rain for the past three years. Their land has dried up with no grass to feed their livestock, the majority of which have perished. The women dig holes in the river beds, hoping to get a few drops of water to drink. The water is muddy and brown, but that does not stop them from drinking it. They were gathered next to one of the dried-up river beds, where they all sat patiently listening to the word of the gospel from Bishop Wilson Lokaale, after which we distributed the food hampers. They were overjoyed to receive the food. They in turn danced and praised the lord for sending us. They prayed and said a lot of thanks. We drove back to KAG Church in Lodwar town, where we found more elderly people waiting for us. We distributed the food hampers and they were more than grateful, praying for the hands that contributed to the food hampers may be blessed abundantly. The next day we distributed food hampers to the elderly who were unable to come to the Church ground.

At 4 a.m. Tuesday morning, we boarded the matatu for the all-day drive back to Kapenguria, West Pokot. We departed at exactly 4 a.m. to avoid any confrontation with bandits during daylight. We arrived at Kapenguria, where Nelson Kanandi led us to the First Lady Scovia Kapchapin West Pokot County’s office, she warmly welcomed us to her office and after we introduced ourselves, she was kind enough to postpone all her other duties and agreed to accompany us to Cheptram Village, in Riwo ward the next day for our food distribution. The villages were anxiously awaiting our arrival and welcomed us wholeheartedly. The traditional dancers performed for us and after our First Lady gave her speech, we distributed the food hampers. The First Lady also contributed $1.00 for each recipient to enable them to take some of the maize to the posho mill to be ground into porridge flour. They blessed us with Maasai blankets to express their gratitude for our visit. The area is very dry with no signs of rain. It was unfortunate that we had to cut short my time with this mission and head back to Nakuru the following morning, Thursday as spending time with and assisting the people in these desperately dry and drought-stricken areas is such a privilege and joy for us. The following were the words from Cheptramp villagers a few days after we left:

"They really thank Springs of Hope Foundation for our kind gesture of traveling all the way from Nakuru into their village to bring food hampers of beans and maize to every family. The beans served as a supplement to their traditional ugali meal, milled from maize, which they had not had for a very long time. The beans were really tasty and made a very nice stew that serve them for days to come. A big Asante all'

Asante Sana,

Antoinette Hoareau

Nakuru project manager

We can't thank our generous supporters enough for allowing us to continue with this desperately need food hamper program through your kind donations. As we go into another season of very little rain in Esat Africa our fear is that many will continue to suffer from malnourishment.

Thank you so much,

Asante Sana,

Jennifer Hughes-Bystrom

A dried up river is the only water for many miles

The women walk for hours to fetch the muddy water.

Retrieving the muddy water is also very dangerous

Some of our very grateful food hamper recipients

Some of our elderly recipients of much needed food

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