Despite her young age, Felistas Koki speaks with authority and courage drawn from experience earned through frequent encounters with food shortages in her area.
“A hungry child cannot concentrate in school and many often drop out of school in hopes that when they stay at home, probably their parents will get some food to feed them, while some girls have been married off in exchange for food, this leads to teen pregnancies further escalating the number of children undernourished,” said Koki, as she boldly read a statement on behalf of her fellow children.
This was during the launch of the ‘ENOUGH’ campaign by World Vision. First Lady Rachel Ruto, was the Chief Guest. Her statement captured her and other children’s plight, grappling with food security.
Kenya has been facing hunger due to conflict, climate shocks, rising cost of living and declining food production which have contributed to food scarcity and high food prices.
According to the 2023 Global Hunger Index (GHI) which ranked Kenya at the 90th position of the 125 countries with sufficient data to calculate the Global Hunger Index. This is a grim ranking.
The launch ‘ENOUGH’ campaign by World Vision seeks to reverse the situation by combating child hunger and malnutrition, seeking to address
the alarming prevalence of food insecurity and ensuring every child has access to nutritional food for their well-being and development.
“There is no greater indignity than children attending school hungry. We have made significant strides, reducing stunting from 26 per cent in 2014 to 18 per cent in 2022. Overall, nutrition has improved,” said First Lady Rachel Ruto who lauded the global agency’s initiative.
According to her, there is a need for unity in scaling up interventions in food security, health, nutrition and finance; to reach the goal of less than 5 per cent of childhood wasting by 2025. She also stated that 847,000 Kenyan children under five face acute malnutrition down from 14.5 per cent from 2023.
“Our vision is a world where every child enjoys enough nourishing food,” said Dr David Githanga, Board Chair of World Vision.
He added, “Despite advancement, the statistics remain staggering globally up to 783 million people faced hunger in 2022, with Kenya bearing its share of the burden.”
He revealed that World Vision invested over Sh13 billion in 2023 with half of the amount dedicated to projects contributing to food and nutrition. This has benefitted 1.9 million children and 1.5 million adults.
Across Africa, World Vision commits to spend $1.7 billion to address the escalating hunger crisis, targeting to improve the nutritional status of children in 27 countries.
