Camels for Life

 

Global warming has increased the frequency and severity of drought in marginal areas of Northern Kenya. In these areas the camel has become important to the survival of the indigenous livestock Keepers that inhabit these regions. Meet Akuam, a widowed mother, from the Rendille tribe and experience her joy after receiving a camel from Sauti Moja.

 

For additional information on the Livestock for Sustainable Livelihoods program please go to www.sautimoja.org

 

Mother’s Day in Marsabit, Northern Kenya

by Lyn Bishop

I'm with Gusoya, widowed mother and beneficiary of
Sauti Moja's donkey and goat program.

Having been a single mother and working in Marsabit, it is difficult for me to not reflect seriously on the challenges facing single mothers here, as Sauti Moja focuses on girl mothers and widowed mothers.  Worldwide, a mother’s love for her children knows no boundaries, but in a mother’s love, we carry a common burden in child raising - guilt and worry.  Too vividly, I recall feeling guilty when I came home late from work, let my children stay up too late, and was too tired to properly engage with them, as well as worrying so much about their challenges in school or with friends.  Now, just imagine the burden of guilt and worry carried by an impoverished Kenyan mother who puts her children to bed hungry and worries how they will find food and fetch water. 

I’ve just returned from a village where a mother shared that when her children awoke in the middle of the night crying, she would tell them, “I am cooking food now, go back to sleep and I’ll wake you when it is ready”, but really no food was being prepared.  This mom may not live in your neighbourhood, but she is one of us, in this global village.

As we celebrate Mother’s Day, I have profiled the lives of three of our beneficiaries - two widowed mothers and one child mother - who have demonstrated daily courage and resiliency as they commit to the struggle to love and protect their children and provide a better future for them.

My husband, Tim, with Kelvin Honsinger
 from ERDO, a donor agency
 supporting our widow mothers.

Fatuma, a widow with three young children ranging from newborn to five years old, is a Sauti Moja beneficiary who received one donkey and four goats in 2008.   She was very proud of her donkey and goats, and eventually was able to produce enough milk to give to her children and sell.  She used the donkey to travel the long distances required to fetch water from a stream about 8 km away.  Unfortunately, life’s problems are not resolved so simply. 

Fatuma’s new livestock grazed on family land, but as the livestock increased in number, the family no longer wanted to share their land.  Fatuma made a decision to purchase a quarter acre of land with a loan from the Kenya Women’s Trust Fund.  Paying the loan produced a new challenge, so she took to making charcoal down in the desert area and hauling charcoal to town for sale.  This work is hard and laborious, and soon Fatuma fell ill.   I wondered if taking a loan was the right decision for Fatuma, but after reflection I had to concede that it can’t be wrong to strive and take a chance for a better life.   At any rate, Fatuma, with no source of additional income, could no longer pay the loan, had the added burden of medical bills, and her children were hungry.  At this juncture, she decided to sell her Sauti Moja goats, which she was very ashamed to do, and pay off her debt.  Today, she is a happy farmer growing beans and kale, and selling it in the market.  I don’t expect Fatuma’s life to be easy, but today I can celebrate with Fatuma in her journey as a single mother.  I wish her continued courage and wisdom, as she raises her three children and farms her small plot of land.

Diramu with her baby and a container
of her goat's milk in hand.

Diramu is a charming and  determined widow mother with four young children.  Before receiving a donkey and four goats from Sauti Moja, she had never owned even a chicken.  However with diligence, Diramu soon increased her goat herd to 16.  As pastoralist lives revolve around livestock,  her herd represented a great achievement and increased social status for this poor mother.  Unfortunately, the Drought of 2011 presented a tremendous challenge.  Diramu and her children were totally dependent on relief food for their survival, but she knew that that this food supply would soon end.  She also knew that her animals were the key to the survival of her family.  As her donkey was critical to hauling daily water for her family, she fed the donkey a portion of the meagre family ration of relief maize, but as drought persisted, the donkey became too weak to go for grazing.  Now, it was Diramu who walked 8 km each way to carry water to both her donkey and children, as well as travel into the heat of the desert to dig edible roots. 

Animals are most vulnerable when the drought breaks and rains come, as their weakened bodies are defenceless against hypothermia.  Diramu’s donkey was helpless, unable to stand without help and had lost much of its hair, so she brought the donkey into her hut to keep it warm.  Today, Diramu is pleased, as she was able to save 8 of her 16 goats from the drought and her donkey lived and regained full strength.  The donkey now carries the water for Diramu, and once again, the goats are a source of wholesome milk for her children with any extra distributed to other poor mothers.  

I had the privilege of being in Diramu’s home sitting among the kids (baby goats) that were kept warm by the embers of her kitchen fire, when she proudly displayed a bottle of milk as evidence of being a good livestock-keeper.   She talked about how she now feels like a productive and valued member in her village community, as her livestock has released her from begging and she is able to provide for her children.  I was struck by Diramu’s commitment to save her animals but also recognize that she was also fighting to protect all the good that she had worked so hard to create.  Today, I celebrate Diramu, her resiliency and commitment to provide for her children through challenging times and to her contributing as an interdependent member of her community.

Amina, with Martha, Sauti Moja's
Child Mother Team Leader.

Often girls do not have the power to negotiate sexual advances and so was case for Amina, who became a child mother at the tender age of 15 years.  Amina was raised by a single mother and grew-up in abject poverty; she well knew the path of hardship that lay ahead for her.  So, it was not surprising that she lost all hope in life when Zainabu was three years old, and she became pregnant again with Bone.  Prior to her first pregnancy, Amina was a good student with dreams of a different life, a better life, but child mothers were not welcome in the local school.   She recently told us of those dark days when she was in deep despair due to no income, two babies, and no hope for anything better.

The first ray of light for Amina was meeting Martha, the Team Leader for our Child Mother program.  Martha negotiated with the school to allow her to enrol, and Sauti Moja linked Amina with a generous sponsor in Oakville.  (Amina’s sponsor is tracking Amina’s progress, and looks forward to regular updates.  She has even spoken of one day bringing her daughters to Kenya to visit with Amina.)  As Moms, you are probably wondering who is taking care of Zainabu and Bone while Amina attends school.  Well, happily, Amina’s mother is the caregiver to Amina’s children, and with the financial support of Amina’s sponsor, Sauti Moja provides a monthly allowance for child care, while Martha regularly monitors the health and wellbeing of her children.

On April 25^th, Tim and I arrived into Marsabit, and visited our child mothers who were participating in a three-day workshop on life skills and reproductive health.  We received a wonderful update on Amina, who was also in attendance.  Martha shared the great news that Amina had received a full scholarship to study engineering in Nairobi.  Amina was shortlisted for this scholarship, as she had indicated an interest in becoming an engineer, had superior marks in Physics, Math, Swahili and English, and was a member of the Math Club.   After a personal interview at the College in Nairobi, a math test, and two days of orientation, Amina was selected as one of the very few recipients of this important scholarship for girls from the remote areas of Kenya.  Amina will study power transmission, as Kenya is rapidly expanding its electrical infrastructure. 

In October 2011, Amina was visited by Kathy Platt, a church minister from Regina and Sauti Moja donor.  As a closing note, I would like to reference the inspirational message Amina shared with Kathy for other vulnerable mothers in Canada. “Don’t allow anyone to belittle you or look at you like you are nothing.  Always be ready to face any challenges that come your way, because the world is full challenges, all the time.”  Or, as in Scott Peck’s opening line in of A Road Less Travelled, “Life is difficult.”

As we reflect on the challenge of motherhood, let us not separate ourselves from struggling mothers all over the World, but unite in the knowledge that our destination is the same, raising healthy children in a challenging world.

For more information on Sauti Moja programs please go to www.sautimoja.org.

InsideHalton Article: Oakville woman helping East African villagers

InsideHalton Article: Oakville woman helping East African villagers

The Maasai, the Samburu and groups like them have called the plains of Kenya and Tanzania home for hundreds of years and now an Oakville woman is working to make sure their communities stay intact for hundreds more.  Lyn Bishop, a graduate of T.A. Blakelock High School and Sheridan College, is a key member of the charity organization Sauti Moja, which means ‘one voice’ in Swahili.

Sauti Moja, which was created by Bishop’s husband Tim Wright, is focused on improving the lives of the pastoral people of East Africa who are currently struggling to survive the destructive effect discrimination, disease, land loss and drought are having on them.  “They are on the front lines of global warming. Their lives are changing so fast and no one is there to support them,” said Bishop.
“They are indigenous groups and like any indigenous group you see around the world, they are often left without public sympathy or support within their own community and at the same time they are a people who have a proud heritage, a way of life that should be respected and an amazing innocence to the changes that are happening around them.”

One of the things Sauti Moja brings to the pastoralist communities is HIV/AIDS education.
An AIDS outbreak can have a disastrous impact on a pastoral community because the community’s survival depends on its members being healthy and being able to walk long distances to gather food and water and to look after livestock.  Sauti Moja educates these communities about the disease and how it is spread.
Young men, who travel into cities for work, in particular, receive AIDS education as they have been identified as a key transmission factor in Maasai communities.  Condom use is also promoted and aid is given to those who already have the disease. “What we’re trying to do is help them understand, through community conversation, how HIV/AIDS is spread and how it works, so they can decide for themselves how they can change some of these cultural practices (that promote the spread of the disease),” said Bishop.   “Rather than being told what to do, they make the decisions.”

Early childhood education is another service Sauti Moja delivers.  Bishop said in northern Tanzania Maasai children are at a huge disadvantage as the Maasai do not put their children into Grade 1 until age seven.  With no prior classroom experience and no knowledge of Swahili or English, the languages spoken at the schools, Maasai children are set up to fail. As a result many drop out or do not pass the exam needed to move on to secondary school.  To combat this, Bishop said Sauti Moja has established two classrooms in two Tanzanian villages for Maasai children between the ages of three and seven.  These classrooms help the Maasai children with their language skills and prepare them for entering the Tanzanian school system.   Sauti Moja intends to bring this program to other villages as soon as funding permits it.

Another Sauti Moja project sees goats, donkeys and camels provided to widows and abandoned women within some of the indigenous communities of northern Kenya.  Providing this livestock allows these women to become self-sufficient and to feed their children.  “The goats give milk and they help to nourish the children the widow is looking after. The donkey is very important in carrying water and this is important because during drought season these women are walking miles and miles just to get water,” said Bishop.  “The more water they can bring back in one trip is important because maybe that means they won’t have to go and get more water the next day and also the longer they are away, the less childcare is happening back home.”  Bishop said Sauti Moja also provides these women with training on how to properly look after this livestock and purchases the livestock locally so they are more likely to survive.  “We support them with veterinary medicines, so they can stay strong. In their recent drought we learned that a lot of the livestock actually hangs on in drought,” said Bishop.  “When they actually die is after, when the raining season comes, because they are weak and they die from chills because of the rain. So we brought extra hay in to help feed them and give them a warmer place and that really helped to sustain them.”   According to the Sauti Moja website, 50 women have received camels, 75 women have received donkeys and 516 goats have been distributed to 111 women.  Sauti Moja currently has a goal of helping 1,000 widows through this program.

Sauti Moja is not Bishop’s first charity. She previously worked with such organizations as World Vision.  Bishop said she first became interested in international humanitarian work during a T.A. Blakelock field trip to Columbia.“This was my first exposure to what is commonly referred to as Third World conditions. As a young person growing up in Oakville I lived a fairly protected life, and through my travels, I realized that I represented only a small percentage of the world's population who could access the kind of opportunities that come with good health and good education found in Canada,” said Bishop.  “Living a life in Canada has been a gift and a privilege that I felt put an onus on me to give back to the world, especially when so many others can't access the resources to even take care of themselves. Sauti Moja gives me an opportunity to share my good fortune.”

For more information, visit www.sautimoja.org.

World Food Day and Global Warming: Articles and Reflections

by Tim Wright

Perspectives on the East Africa drought from local experts.
A personalized and informative article in the Guardian newspaper provides insight into how the drought affecting pastoralists and others in Kenya, focusing on Moyale, which is close to the communities in which Sauti Moja works. Mpoke, a Maasai veterinarian reports, "In the past we used to have regular 10-year climatic cycles which were always followed by a major drought. In the 1970s, we started having droughts every seven years; in the 1980s, they came about every five years, and in the 1990s, we were getting droughts and dry spells almost every two or three years. Since 2000, we have had three major droughts and several dry spells. Now they are coming almost every year, right across the country." (These observations are consistent with the precipitation records that I analysed 10 years ago.) Mpoke added, "The frequency of heat waves is increasing. Temperatures are generally more extreme, water is evaporating faster, and the wells are drying. Larger areas are being affected by droughts, and flooding is now more serious. We are seeing that the seasons have changed. We have more unpredictable, extreme weather. It is hotter than it used to be, and it stays hotter for longer. The rain has become more sporadic. It comes at different times of the year now and farmers cannot tell when to plant. There are more epidemics for people and animals." There is more in this article that should interest Sauti Moja’s donors. www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/03/climate-change-kenya-10-10

Perspectives on the drought from OXFAM
OXFAM, a well-known UK charity, conducts high-quality analysis with an international focus on social justice. Recently, they published a report indicating that more than 23 million people are being pushed towards severe hunger and destitution across East Africa. The severe and persistent five-year drought, deepened by climate change, is now stretching across seven countries in the region and exacting a heavy human toll, made worse by high food prices and violent conflict. The worst affected countries are Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda. Malnutrition is now above emergency levels in some areas and hundreds of thousands of cattle - people's key source of income - are dying. People are surviving on 2 liters of water a day in some places - less water than a toilet flush. (In many cases, they have to buy the water, thereby further reducing capacity to buy food!) This is the worst drought that Kenya has experienced for a decade, and the worst humanitarian situation Somalia has experienced since 1991.www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/09/29-15

Food Aid perspectives from the World Food Program.
With more on the consequences of the drought on food supplies, a Globe and Mail article indicates that malnutrition is rising dramatically in Kenya, with the level of severe malnutrition climbing to 24 per cent among children in the hardest-hit regions – far more than the 15-per-cent threshold for an emergency. Children are dropping out of school because their parents can't even afford the cost of textbooks. (Other reports indicate that food prices have doubled.) This article notes that, normally, the World Food Program of the UN would address much of the food shortage by providing emergency food aid. Donors have been slow to respond. Only 35 per cent of the WFP's emergency operations are covered by donations at this point, and the agency needs another $230-million to meet the need. “We recognize that many of our donors have been affected by the world economic crisis, but unless we feed the hungry, the situation in Kenya will only get worse,” said Gabrielle Menezes, a WFP spokeswoman.www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/kenyan-farmers-watch-their-livelihoods-and-food-supply-disappear/article1284880/#video

Donor nations are reneging on commitments for food aid.
Another Globe and Mail article confirms that the WFP and other agencies are unable to respond adequately to the food crisis in the developing world, and that international emergency food agencies are bracing for the next blow. Cheques are due from donor countries like Canada on massive recent funding commitments, but many of the promises were made before recession and trillion-dollar bailouts left rich nations with crushing deficits! Even the most reliable donors are taking a hard look at foreign aid, as gross domestic product declines. http://www.theglobeandmail.com:80/news/national/food-agencies-feeling-recession-pressure/article1314548/

Further, this week, the Guardian reported more on this from Bangkok where preliminary climate change negotiations are underway, in preparation for Copenhagen. Though food riots in more than 20 countries last year persuaded rich countries to give a record $5bn to the WFP to help avert a global food crisis brought on by record oil prices and the growth of biofuel crops. But new data shows that food aid is now at its lowest in 20 years. Countries have offered only $2.7bn in the first 10 months of 2009. "Even under our best scenarios, we will end the year $2bn short," said Sheeran, Head of WFP. "Many of our funders do not feel that they need to give on the level of last year. They think the world food crisis is over, but in 80% of countries, food prices are actually higher than one year ago." As a result of this funding shortfall, more than 40 million people could be affected by the WFP having to scale back food rations. Countries most likely to be hit include Bangladesh, where the budget is likely to be cut by as much as 50%, and Kenya, where similar cuts will worsen the plight of millions of extra people made destitute by a long drought. This includes the pastoralists that you support and we serve; they really need help in this desperate time!
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/10/11-0

Military spending instead of food aid?
In my opinion and as an aside, we must call on our nations to re-direct military spending to social justice issues, including addressing climate change and providing development aid, rather than making an excuse of shortage of funds. For example, the Stokholm International Peace Institute found that spending on military hardware in 2008 was as follows: USA $607 Billion; China, 84.9; France, 65.7; UK, 65.3; Russia, 58.6; Germany, 46.8; Japan, 46.3; Italy, 40.6; Saudi Arabia, 38.2; and India, 30. Note that the USA spent 27% more than the combined spending of the next nine nations. The food aid for WFP was $5 Billion in 2008 from ALL the countries in the World; the USA spent $607 Billion on weapons that year! www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/06/08-4

Sabotaging both aid and climate change targets!
In relationship to the accountability of Western nations for global warming, OXFAM published an article about the up-coming Copenhagen meetings. Their fear is that the USA and other rich nations, including Canada, are sabotaging a serious response to global warming. In contrast, developing countries are willing to negotiate and respond appropriately; for example, China is a world leader in renewable energy investment, has committed to reduce emissions in line with its economic growth path, and has offered support to help developing countries, including small island states and African nations, adapt to the impacts of climate change. An OXFAM policy analyst says, "It's the US that needs to make the toughest choice in Copenhagen: does it join the rest of the world to strengthen and build on the Kyoto model of binding targets, or remain the odd one out? It is useful that the US is prompting a debate on who does what under a global agreement, but if it really hopes to have a constructive dialogue with developing countries it has to up the ante first by tabling an offer of finance and emissions cuts commensurate with its historic emissions and economic weight. They are now openly insisting climate finance should come from existing aid budgets.” Further, OXFAM is concerned about the diversion of aid funding to climate funding; "Aid must be increased, not diverted. If promised aid increases are plundered for climate purposes, it could mean that 8.6 million fewer people will have access to HIV and AIDS treatment, 75 million fewer children will be in school, and 4.5 million more children die than would otherwise be the case." (This really an implicit call to action; Sauti Moja donors and others’ lobbying our government is potentially critical to the well-being, and perhaps survival, of our beneficiaries and their children. It really is life and death!)www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/10/09-4

Food waste actually does contribute to hunger!
At a personal level, I have never been very attentive to not wasting food, and rejected my mother’s guilt trip, “Eat your food, Tim. Think of the hungry in Africa.” However, a study out of the UK has made me re-think the value of personal and collective action; researchers reported that eliminating the millions of tonnes of food thrown away annually in the US and UK could lift more than a billion people out of hunger worldwide. Government officials, food experts and representatives of the retail trade brought together by the Food Ethics Council argue that excessive consumption of food in rich countries inflates food prices in the developing world. Buying food, which is then often wasted, reduces overall supply and pushes up the price of food, making grain less affordable for poor and undernourished people in other parts of the world. Food waste also costs UK consumers £10.2bn a year and when production, transportation and storage are factored in, it is responsible for 5% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions. Tristram Stuart, a contributor to the study said: "There are nearly a billion malnourished people in the world, but all of them could be lifted out of hunger with less than a quarter of the food wasted in Europe and North America. In a globalised food system, where we are all buying food in the same international market place, that means we're taking food out of the mouths of the poor." The article also has suggestions for reducing waste.www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/08/food-waste

Bleak predictions from the food experts!
Without dramatic reversal of the current trend in climate change, the future looks bleak. The International Food Policy and Research Institute recently published a report that integrates climate and agricultural production models with population predictions. Though there is variability in modeled prediction, the direction would be valid and the conclusions true, given some leeway for time. The findings indicated that if global warming goes unchecked, all regions of the world will be affected, but the most vulnerable - south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa - will be hit hardest by failing crop yields. Analysts at IFPRI concluded that over the next few decades, prices of food will increase dramatically, per capita food availability in Sub-Saharan Africa will drop to a level below the standard for emergency relief, and worldwide, 25 million more children will be malnourished. www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/09/30-1

“Pastoralist Voices” is an authoritative report that you can subscribe to.
Our supporters may find that ‘Pastoralist Voices’, which is published regularly by UNOCHA, informative. The October 2009 issue noted that pastoralists are the most affected and remain the most vulnerable to climate related disasters in Kenya.
· The population in need of emergency humanitarian assistance are some 3.8 pastoralists and 1.5 million children from these drought-affected pastoral areas; they all require food assistance.
· Acute malnutrition for children was reported to be 20 per cent above global rate.
· Depleted livestock, limited pasture and water from the cumulative effect of cyclic drought and the availability of small arms are forcing aggressive pastoralists’ cross-border movement in ways that is triggering violent armed cross-border conflict.
· Affected communities in the pastoral livelihood zones are trekking between 20 – 25 kilometers against the normal average of seven kilometers in search of water.
· Emergency responses are failing on three counts. They fail to prevent the recurrence of crisis. They fail to support the capacity of the pastoral community to withstand the effects of shocks. And they fail to adapt to the changing nature of shocks. There is an urgent need to develop responses that address the underlying causes of the increasing vulnerability facing agro-based livelihoods (livestock and farming).
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SHIG-7WFBV7?OpenDocument#