"It's exceptionally dry. Everywhere here is extremely dusty. I mean, I was here about 8 years ago in this region and it's normally quite dry, but this is absolutely exceptional. I mean, the trees that were growing for decades are now parched, completely dried out; and that's the crux of the problem here; that people hadn't access to water when they needed it; and, thankfully, our intervention as SOS Children's Villages, it was quick enough and practical enough to get them water when it mattered.

That meant organizing large trucks and containers to bring the water from outlying areas into this region and, therefore, kids were able to go back to school, they were able to return to their classrooms, whereas before they would spend literally days going from one place to the other carting water and having to bring their animals to that water and so…now, when they did that with their families, they couldn't spend time in the school, so the people here are exceptionally grateful that we gave them that opportunity to go back to school and to live a relatively normal life.

SOS Supplies Food to the Hungry

Now, also we have been helping with food distribution because, again, food is pretty scarce because the land has dried up and people couldn't grow crops of grains for the last few years, and it's run out, and even though the shops are relatively well-stocked, people cannot – often – afford to buy what they see in the shops before them, because this stuff's been imported from other parts of the country.

We must remember that we are approximately 370m from Kenya's capital Nairobi; now, that's 370m on exceptionally poor roads; it takes at least two days to make this journey and, often there are no roads; there are just sandy paths you follow through the desert.

So, it takes a great effort to supply food; but, as the shops are stocked, what SOS Children's Villages has contributed to here is to ensure that people without means can afford to buy food; for instance, just a head of cabbage at the moment costs something likes six times more here than it costs in Nairobi, because it just costs so much to transport it. Poor people couldn't afford, so SOS Children's Villages helped them with electronic cards which are almost like credit cards, which allow them to go into a shop and get a certain amount of provisions on a regular basis. And, obviously, that's limited per family, but it ensures that the poorest of the poor, and children especially, are able to benefit from more support in their times of need.

What Does the Future Hold?

Until the rains arrive, the people on the ground here will still require deliveries of water, that's vital; and, without a constant supply of water, they can forget about it; they will have to send their kids out of school again. So, it's incumbent on us, as an organization, and people who can afford to help them to still contribute to this cause, because it's not going to go away anytime soon, even if the rains come today, and if they'll have them for another three weeks, the ground is so dry here that it's going to take crops a long time to establish.

We need to be able to continue to support these people; they're really doing a lot help themselves; they're not passive recipients of aid here. They work hard to get the most out of what little resources they have…and all they ask of us is to help them with a very, very basic commodity to ensure that they have access to water and that the poorest of poor have access to food. It's as simple as that, and they're exceptionally grateful for everything we've done to date."

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