Families Fight Severe Drought in Kenya’s Coastal Towns
AMREF has been working closely with communities in the Matinyani district of Kenya for a long time, focusing mostly on maternal and child health initiatives. The district has been severely hit by the recent drought. AMREF Communications Manager Betty Muriuki recently traveled there and her field diary provides a snapshot of day-to-day life under these dire conditions.
July 28, 2011 
On a sunny midmorning through thickets and shrubs, a dusty road leads us to Ngomeni village in Kenya’s, Matinyani district. Dry river beds, trees and crops are clear indications that this village has been hit hard by the prevailing drought for the past several months.
In a compound with several grass thatched houses is where we make a stop. This is the home of Musili Mumo, a 75 year old man who is a father of nine children aged 23 to 46 years old and several grandchildren. Musili is packing charcoal into a sack with one of his grandchildren. As we get closer he welcomes us.
After a brief introduction, he leads us into his home where one of his sons’ wives, Mueni, is busy in the kitchen preparing porridge with children eagerly looking on. She comes out of the tiny hut with wooden stools as she welcomes us and sends one of the children to get more stools from the grandmother’s hut. We sit under the shade of a barely surviving acacia tree as Musili and his daughter in-law tell us their story.
Musili and his family depend on farming as a source of income, but their crops have failed them this year because of the drought.
“There have not been any rains this year and all the crops we planted dried up except for the Nzuu (pigeon peas) that also did not do well making us look for alternative sources of income like charcoal burning which is illegal. But we have no choice”, says Musili.
“We at times go without food the whole day and we are used to it. I have 2 goats which we sometimes milk and sell to get money to buy food and other basic needs and one bull for farming. We fetch our water from a ‘silanga’ (earth dam) which is about 4 kilometers away. The water is not clean because there is no treatment that takes place there and the cattle and donkeys drink from the same dam. This is the water we drink, cook and wash with, we have no other source of water”, says the older man.
Among the new struggles that the has drought conceived are old challenges that have not been forgotten. Lack of or inaccessibility to healthcare and educational services make women and children extremely vulnerable to illness and disease. As a result, AMREF continues to promote access to and use of maternal and reproductive health services in this time of dire need.
Eight of Musili’s nine children and all of his grandchildren were born at home with the help of a traditional birth attendant who charges 200 Kenyan Shillings ($2 CA) per delivery. Musili explains that his wife delivered all the children at home except one who was delivered at the hospital after complications. His wife used to develop complications of blood clots in the uterus after delivering at home and Musili would take her to hospital for treatment. It was after the last born and after making several visits to the hospital that they decided to use family planning. Musili explains that his wife had suffered enough.
Mueni who had left to milk the goat enters the kitchen and all the children follow her and sit around the fire place eagerly waiting for the porridge that is cooking on the fire. Mueni is married to Mwendwa and they have 3 children - all of whom were born at home.
“One of my children, James, had a malnutrition case and when I took him to the dispensary I was given supplementary foods and he is now improving. It is during this visit that I learned of maternal and child health activities at the clinic and I was educated on family planning and I am now using a three month injection as a way of planning my family,” she says.
As she serves the children who have been eagerly waiting for the porridge, Mueni explains that she is happy with the work that the community health workers are doing because most of us have been educated. "With their support and teachings, I now know the importance of family planning, hospital delivery and ante-natal care. I was very happy to see water running at the dispensary and especially at the maternity clinic. I promise I am going to have my next baby at the clinic-- that is if I choose to have another child," she says smiling.
AMREF has a long history of training health workers and improving access to care in Matinyani district. However, with the arrival of the drought and famine the people in these areas have even higher obstacles to overcome and more challenges to face.
These communities need AMREF’s support – please DONATE and ensure families like Musili’s continue to have access to life-saving health services.
